The_Scarlet_Letter

The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter Part two: Formal Literary Response 1.a. Identify and describe both the time and place of The Scarlet Letter. The time and place of The Scarlet Letter is in, “…the good town of Boston,” Massachusetts, in the year 1850 (105). In the 1850’s people think differently of different things such as crime and life, a simpler time with simple thoughts and people. 1.b. Discuss how the setting contributes to the believability of the novel. In The Scarlet Letter, the setting of Boston is surrounded by a, “… vast and dismal forest” (68). The story could of taken place in a different place that has bodies of water, a forest, and a town, that is near a peninsula, because the setting doesn’t play a major role in the story except when Hester and Pearl go into the forest, where Hester has a life-turning talk with Mr. Dimmesdale. The forest is like a dark and mysterious place where a dark creature, the “Black Man,” lives. The time, however, cannot be changed because the story deals with the beliefs of people from the 1850’s. For example people who committed adultery were killed for sinning, even the sinner’s children were killed, but now adultery isn’t punished by death, it scarlet, letter, hester, secret, dimmesdale, pain, about, story, people, pearl, forest, fight, time, sin, place, willing, others, major, death, dark, chillingworth, because, way, throughout, talk, setting, secrets, life, help, gets, even, dimmesdale’s, caused, against