Through Nathaniel Hawthorne's timeless tale of sin, guilt, vengeance, and redemption, students will learn:
Background Information: Do some research to learn more about the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Romanticism, and Transcendentalism.
Author Biography
Vocabulary words used throughout the novel, utilizing a variety of activities to stimulate retention and growth.
Literary Techniques: Grammar and parts of speech, root words, foreshadowing, imagery, synonym, personification, compare & contrast, in context.
Moral Lessons and Character Values: Keeping secrets, lying, shame, penance, and martyrdom, judging others, correction and pride, vengeance, confession, subjective morality, reconciliation with God.
Activities and Writing Assignments: Pre-reading analysis papers on civil government, biblical view of sin, biblical response to people. Brook Farm research. Point-of-view summary essay. Puritanism research paper. Analyze patterns in novel.
Suggestions for Further Reading: We include an in-depth reading list of more books by the same author(s) and other books that tie in with, or are similar to,
The Scarlet Letter. All of the unit lessons are written from a Christian worldview!
- Provides the study guide in universally compatible PDF format (works on Mac AND Windows)
- No costly software purchases necessary
- Our Interactive Study Guide should be opened with the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader program. With the interactive feature, students have the capability of entering their answers directly on the computer and saving their work in progress.
Note: Mobile Devices/Tablets may require alternative app that supports and saves fillable form fields. - Or choose to conveniently print what you need, when you need it:
- Print the whole guide at once
- Print single lessons or pages as the student completes them
- Print multiple copies of the entire guide for classroom sets
- Easy to use with multiple students
- Complete separate answer key file included for the teacher!
- Study guides do not contain the text of the story, play, poems, or book.
- Recommended for grades 9-12.
- Setting: Massachusetts 1640s
- Genre: American literature, Historical literature