Introduction

Use this Real-Life Lens Plan to help students dive deep into Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and examine the novel’s themes, plot, and characters through the lens of punishment. How are the novel’s characters punished, and why? What twists and turns do the punishments take in the course of the novel? Are the punishments fair and reasonable? What does Hawthorne want his readers to learn about punishment? What relevance does the novel have to punishment today?

Materials

  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Introduce the Lens

To activate students’ thinking, choose one or two of the following Real-Life Links to use in an engagement activity. Have students read or watch and discuss the content. Encourage students to jot down notes, or record class notes on the board for future reference.

Pose the following Big Idea Questions to the class:

Who punishes whom in a community and why? 

How do we know when a punishment fits a crime?

Engagement Activity

Have students write quick initial answers to the questions. Then discuss the questions either as a class or in small groups. Prompt students to consider the relationship between crime and punishment and between the punishers and the punished. Encourage students to write about an example of a time when they were punished or they witnessed a punishment. Following discussion, give students time to revise their initial responses, and ask volunteers to share what they wrote with the class.

CCSS

Introduce the Driving Questions

Begin by having students write their own questions about the lesson topic. Encourage them to think about what they already know about punishment and what they’re interested in exploring further. 

Hand out the Driving Questions Worksheet. Review the questions as a class. Students should enter initial answers to the questions as they read The Scarlet Letter. They will revisit the questions and revise their answers following the lesson activities, classroom discussion, and the completion of the text. Remind students to support their responses with text evidence.

Integrate the Driving Questions into your classroom discussions. Use them to help guide students’ thinking about the Big Idea Questions. 

1. How is the idea of punishment relevant to “The Custom House”? 

2. How did Hester’s punishment fit her crime? 

3. How is Hester’s sewing essential to the plot and themes? 

4. Who is Pearl, and what does she represent? 

5. What are the many ways the letter A appears in the novel? 

6. Who is the hero? Who is the villain? 

7. Who suffers the worst punishment? Why?

CCSS

Introduce the "Through the Lens" Activity

Activity: Punishments That Fit Crimes

In this activity, students will explore the idea of punishments fitting crimes.

Help students brainstorm a wide variety of wrongdoings, small to large, petty to serious. Here is a list of suggestions: stealing candy from a store, swearing at a teacher, lying to Congress, killing a harmless spider, painting graffiti on a public wall, purposefully breaking a neighbor’s window, purposefully injuring a child, keeping money found on a sidewalk, hitting a sibling, murdering a stranger, plagiarizing a research paper, embezzling money from an employer, cheating at a game, taking or selling illegal drugs, and kicking a dog. 

Then, as a group, choose a dozen or so from the list. Have each student think of and write a punishment that is appropriate for each crime. Explain to students that their individual responses will fuel a broader class discussion. 

Pair students and have partners share their choices of punishments. Remind students of the Big Idea Questions. 

Engage in a whole-class discussion with questions such as: What does it mean for a punishment to “fit” a crime? Does the age of the criminal matter? Does his or her prior experience matter? Who should decide, in each case, what the punishment should be? Why? 

Before moving on, explain that even though Ticknor and Fields published Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter in 1850, the novel is set in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1642 to 1649. As students read, write, and discuss, they will gather details and ideas about punishment from the 1600s and the 1800s as well as from present day. Make sure students understand the relationship of the introduction, “The Custom House,” to the novel.

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Begin by having students define crime, misdemeanor, and punishment. Supply them with a list of wrongdoings to help them brainstorm more.

Increase difficulty

Have students write short personal anecdotes about times when they were punished for something they did wrong or when they witnessed someone else being punished. Ask two or three volunteers to share their examples. Discuss whether the punishments fit the “crimes.”

Introduce the Final Project

Before moving on, introduce the final projects to the class (see below for details). Have students choose the project they will complete and encourage them to keep their project in mind as they read the text. Facilitate the formation of project groups if necessary.

Assign the Midpoint Activities

Activity 1: Explore Ekphrastic Art

Explain that ekphrastic art is inspired by another work of art. For example, several artists have used The Scarlet Letter as inspiration for paintings. Share three paintings with the class: Tompkins Harrison Matteson’s The Scarlet Letter (1860), Hugues Merle’s The Scarlet Letter (1861), and George Henry Boughton’s Hester Prynne and Pearl (1881). You can project the paintings from the following links, or pass out copies of the Ekphrastic Art Worksheet:

Tompkins Harrison Matteson’s The Scarlet Letter 

Hugues Merle’s The Scarlet Letter

George Henry Boughton’s Hester Prynne and Pearl

Have students jot down short answers or notes on the following questions: 

What moment in the novel does each painting portray?

How are the paintings similar? How are they different?

How does each painting use the color red? Is its use effective? Why or why not?

Does the painting portray punishment? If so, how?

Which painting do you like the most? Why?

Have students discuss their answers in small groups and then as a whole class. Encourage students to refer to specific passages in the text to support their opinions when appropriate. 

Return to this activity after completion of the novel and have students add to and revise their answers.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Have students work in pairs to write initial answers to the questions.

Increase difficulty

Have students locate and analyze another painting, Scene from The Scarlet Letter (1860) by Tompkins Matteson (1813–1884), which depicts a moment from Chapter 19, “The Child at the Brookside.”

Activity 2: Make Predictions

The first 12 chapters of the novel set the scene for the action that happen in the second 12. After students have read Chapters 1-12, ask each student or pairs of students to record predictions to answer the following questions.

Will Hester always be alone? 

Will Reverend Dimmesdale regain his health? 

What will happen to Pearl as an adult? 

Will Roger Chillingworth tell the truth to the community? 

Will the community forgive Hester’s sin? 

Will the community change as a result of Hester’s crime and punishment?

Have students share their predictions with the class. Collect the predictions and hold them until the end of the lesson. Have students return to their predictions when they have completed their reading of the text to confirm or correct them.

CCSS

Final Projects

Students will work on their final projects after they have finished reading the complete text of The Scarlet Letter. Project 1 can be completed by students working individually or in pairs, while Project 2 calls for groups.

Final Project 1: Dramatic Readings

Students will select one passage from the text of about 500 words that supports the theme of punishment and contains a significant symbol, event, or speech. First, they will perform a dramatic reading of the passage, celebrating Hawthorne’s elegant diction and syntax. Consider compiling an audio anthology of these readings, recorded in order of appearance in the text. Then have each student write an analysis of why he or she chose this passage and what it means to the entirety of the novel, analyzing the passage through the lens of punishment.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Choose shorter passages and assign them to your students, keeping their abilities, strengths, and weaknesses in mind.

Increase difficulty

Have pairs of students choose a conversation between two characters, such as Dimmesdale and Chillingworth in Chapter 10 or Hester and Dimmesdale in Chapter 18. They will then act out the conversation with simple movements, props, and even costumes before writing their analyses.

Final Project 2: Stage the Debate

Have students imagine that they are the two sides of the religious tribunal tasked with deciding whether Hester Prynne should be allowed to remove her scarlet A. Assign roles randomly, such as by drawing straws. First, have students write a formal argument defending their assigned position. Then stage a formal debate between the two sides. Encourage students to emulate the diction and syntax of the Puritans that they have read in the novel.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Before students begin, have the whole class brainstorm reasons for and against ending Hester’s punishment. Teams can then use these reasons as the basis of their arguments.

Increase difficulty

Appoint three students to serve as impartial judges to listen to both sides and make a decision about which side makes the stronger case—and why.

Assess the Assignments

Use the Rubric for Student Assessment to evaluate student work on the lesson assignments. 

Distribute the Student Reflection Worksheet. Guide students through the self-assessment and reflection questions.

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