How Does Hawthorne Use Satire In Custom House?

Hayley Babbitt
Period 2
Mr. Nelson
9/22/2015
AP Lang
Scarlet Letter discussion questions

Custom House

Notes:

-written just after he was fired from the Salem Custom House in 1849.
-original manuscript of The Scarlet Letter is lost, and house printing style was imposed on the 1850 edition, so that version varies occasionally from Hawthorne 's spelling, capitalization, and word division in manuscripts of the same time period.
-"Custom-House " sketch is a blend of fact and fantasy. In it Hawthorne does refer to real people, places, and events in Salem, and he also uses this first chapter to introduce the fictional Hester Prynne who wears the scarlet letter that the narrator finds in the Custom House attic.

1)
A custom house is a building where

5) The narrator’s descriptions of his co-workers in the custom house reveal that he thought they were lazy and undeserving of the job. This is shown on page 5, “Oftentimes they were asleep, but occasionally might be heard talking together, in voices between speech and a snore.” 6) The conflict the narrator faces because he is tied to a desk job is that it is preventing him from beginning the story, which gets resolve once he gets fired.

7) The device that Hawthorne uses to set up the story of the scarlet letter is that the narrator of “Custom House” found an unusual package that contained some fabric with a faded letter A imprinted on the cloth, with some papers describing the entire story behind the letter. The narrator then used those documents to create the story of Scarlet Letter.

8) The role time plays in moving from the action depicted in the story of the scarlet letter to the time of Custome House to convey the narrator 's thoughts throughout the story, contrasting the different time periods.

Chapter 1

5)
In the book Scarlet Letter, the main colors describe so far is brown and red. Brown seemed to be used a lot when it comes to character description, especially Hester Prynne. Brown fits Hester Prynne since it represent sensuality, strength, and maturity which are all traits Hester Prynne seems to have. The color red is also mention a lot as the Scarlet Letter. Red is very fitting for the Scarlet Letter because red symbolizes passion, love, and seduction. These characteristics fit the Scarlet Letter to a T.

6) In Chapter 3, the last sentence is: “It was whispered, by those who peered after her, that the scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the dark passageway of the interior.” (Hawthorne, Pg 67). The meaning of this sentence is that some the highly religious Puritans thought the scarlet letter was brightly glowing, which they could have assume was from hellfire due to their religious beliefs.

Chapter 4

1) Hawthorne describes the child to be a “type...of moral agony which Hester Prynne had borne throughout the day.” (Hawthorne, pg 68). This mean is that this baby was born out of sin which goes against Hester morals, and now is forever a reminder of what she