Chapter 2 Building Teaching Skills

Scarlet Letter

In this lesson, a high school English class discusses Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. The novel, set in seventeenth century Boston, focuses largely on two characters who have been carrying on an illicit love affair: Hester Prynne (a young woman who has not seen or heard from her husband for the past two years) and the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale (a pious and well-respected local preacher). When Hester becomes pregnant, she is imprisoned for adultery and soon bears a child. The class is currently discussing Chapter 3, in which the governor and town leaders (including Dimmesdale) are urging Hester to name the baby’s father.