I'm studying American History and Literature now and your video was quite helpful. Simple and clear explanations are essential when English is not your first language. Thanks!
I have to add that illustrations make it so much more appealing. I can give you just one suggestion to make it even more enjoyable: add some soft music to the background. Thumbs up for you!
Horacio Quintana Thanks for the tip! This is one of my first videos, and I'd like to make it a little smoother someday, but I'm glad it was still helpful!
speaking about the 4 major characters this way with a pen and notebook attracts me so much and I said to myself that this one may explain it from a literary perspective.. I am an English literature major. your way of conveying your sense of understanding the book is brilliant. subscribed for sure!!! Bravo, Tim Nance.
Watching your videos instead of online classes, your way of explaining stuff is helpful and easy to understand, after 9 years! btw English isn't my first language and it's perfectly easy to understand you!
Glad it was helpful! I'm planning on putting several more up when I get more time and equipment! If you have any suggestions of things you need, let me know!
Ah! Well, Pearl is called "Elf" and "Sprite" and all kinds of names throughout because she acts so wild and because she has difficulty relating to the rest of humanity. The main reason for this is that the rest of society doesn't accept her, so why should she relate to them? There are many descriptions of this; Look at chapter 6 (toward the end), chapter 8, and chapter 15 especially. Also, look at chapter 16 about two or three pages in where Hester trying to catch the sunlight but can't. It describes Pearl's inability to relate to people or sympathize with humanity because she lacks "a grief that should deeply touch her, and thus humanize and make her capable of sympathy." She finds it in chapter 23 on the scaffold is transformed into someone capable of sympathy. To your second question, the A is described all throughout, but the places where it changes meaning are as follows: Meaning Angel--the end of chapter 12; Meaning Able--the third paragraph in chapter 13. Chapter two is the introduction to its symbolism as a sin/Adultery. Does that help?
Definitely my favorite hat. In spite of being stapled together cardboard coffee sleeves, it's really comfortable. I wear it again when talking about Shakespeare's Cymbeline. Also, I have suits of armor and a horse made from coffee sleeves if you skim through my channel.
Oh, and the giant wings. They're here when I'm talking about the harpies in Dante's Inferno: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Kma4XLgtXWM.htmlm58s
Hey thank you so much! I have a question, How does Hawthorne analyze the argument? the argument being the Puritans are hypocrites...because we are supposed to write a paper and your video helped incredibly a lot. In seeing how they are in a way hypocrites but I'm still stuck on his exigence and his argument and purpose. Like his exigence was because of his ancestors doing horrible things to the quakers... and such but I'm still a bit confused on how to put it all together.
+hafsa bousaoud Well, by definition, the protagonist is the central character who must work through the conflict of the story. Since Hester seems the most central character, she is a good choice for this role. However, one could make an argument for Dimmesdale, since the climax focuses on his confession, doesn't it? Still, I don't think Hester is a bad choice as she is strong and undergoes considerable development throughout the story, not to mention her central connection to all the important aspects of the plot. Is there a particular reason why you are questioning her as protagonist?
hi .thanks for example the scarlet letter But l think that not enough or every thing on the novel . Please help me .in the end the novel what happened exactly please more information about it.
+امير الاحزان The book ends as Dimmesdale reveals the Scarlet Letter to the crowd and then dies from the weakness of his long suffering. However, by revealing his sin, he finds redemption. Pearl also finds her humanity and true emotion by experiencing both a father's acceptance and the grief that helps her to relate to others. Chillingworth loses his control over Dimmesdale and has nothing left to live for. Before he dies, however, he leaves all of his property and belonging to Pearl, providing a future for her. This action is interesting and makes him more complex. Pearl grows up and moves to England and marries and is able to live a happy, normal life. Hester goes with her for a while and then returns to finish her life, accepting her place, though the town views her with respect from then on. She finally dies and accepts the fate she has been given--a black tombstone with nothing but a red A on it. Is that what you needed?
Hello! I am from Argentina and i am studying english. This has been very helpful for me, thank you so much. I have to write an Essay about this book, my topic will be "Guilt". Could you give an advise to write it? you may can help me to organise it or tell me what else i can talk about. Thank you. pd: Sorry if my english is not very good.
Yamila Manenti Hello! Good luck with your essay! There are several ways you could approach the topic of guilt in this book. The most direct would probably be to contrast exposed guilt with hidden guilt and then discuss how the characters express those two kinds of guilt, with most of your focus on Hester and Dimmesdale. You could also align Pearl with the "exposed guilt" side, even though the guilt is not her own, and Chillingworth with the deceptive, hidden guilt. The townspeople also have their own guilt, which they hide hypocritically. Another approach would be to look at sins that "feel right" versus sins of deception and a "violation of another's soul." Dimmesdale draws this distinction between their original sin of adultery and the sin of Chillingworth's revenge when he's talking to Hester in the garden. I like the romanticism of the point, but it's important to note that both of them lead to dire consequences. Perhaps both also lead to positive consequences: their inappropriate love produces Pearl and Chillingworth's revenge ultimately pushes Dimmesdale to confess as he admits on the scaffold at the end. You could also focus on the consequences of guilt in general. This could be developed as its own essay, or as sub points under a discussion of the different types of guilt. As far as organization goes, your best bet is probably to examine one character at a time, perhaps categorically. Be sure to note that the original sin isn't in the book at all, and though sins are committed in the book, the most important happens before. Therefore, the book is about dealing with guilt and not exactly about sin itself. How long is your essay going to be? The length determines organization. If it's only a few paragraphs, you could do an introduction paragraph, a body paragraph about Hester's guilt, a body paragraph about Dimmesdale's guilt, and a conclusion. If it's 5 or 6 paragraphs, add in a paragraph about Pearl or Chillingworth. If it's much longer than that, examine each character in multiple paragraphs, one for the type of guilt, one for the consequences. Also, if it's a much longer essay, you could spend a paragraph in the beginning developing the context of the book and how it applies to guilt in general. Finally, I do have some videos on writing--at least, I have a good one on introductions. You should check it out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HQ6sMxp-QK4.html Let me know if I can do anything else!
Tim Nance This is Perfect! you should wear a letter A on your chest too, beacause you are A -mazing! My essay is 4 or 5 paragraphs, i think i will add a paragraph about Pearl or Chillingworth. I have seen the other video, thanks again, it will be very helpful to write my introduction (Morover it made me laugh!). I had not expected you would write so much, are you a teacher? i am going to be an English teacher if everything goes fine :) And your videos will help me a lot. After this I have to do a monograph about "Animal Farm", Did you read it? well, thank you again, I am going to start with my essay following your advice!
Yamila Manenti Thank you so much! Glad I could be helpful! This Scarlet Letter video is one of my first, and it's a little rough; I like the later videos (such as the writing one) much better. I am a teacher, and I LOVE it! Good luck in your future, and feel free to ask me questions any time! I have read Animal Farm and did enjoy it, but I don't have any videos over it. Maybe I'll get one up eventually! If you have any questions about it though, I'll be happy to answer!
This was really helpful! You do a great job of analyzing the plot & characters. I just finished the story on "The Tiny Teacher" YT page where she shows the text & reads it aloud because, honestly, that's the only way I could ever get through something like this. LOL I haven't had a literature course since high school which was decades ago. Anyway, even with having someone read it aloud with me, I still found it excruciatingly boring. So much was telegraphed beforehand that you knew the man who showed up with the Indian was her husband after about one sentence & you knew who the father was as soon as he was compelled by the others to ask her to reveal the identity of the father. Zzzzz. I finished the book wondering, "What was the point of that?!" I was also frustrated that Hester was actually a very kind, generous woman who defined her entire life by one sinful act (or possibly an affair, but I don't think it mattered in that time & community). I couldn't understand why she returned to that community after living with Pearl abroad. It seemed like such a tragic ending. She had already done decades of penance so, while she was eventually redeemed in the eyes of the community, she lives out her final years alone and dies alone. I find that really depressing, probably because I suspect that's my fate, even though I would change that if I could. BTW, the epitaph (and the story) ends with the word, "gules". What does that mean? [ETA: I will have to check out your channel! I've watched lots of channels talking about literature here on YT and this one is the most interesting. I'm curious to see your explanation of other works. "Wuthering Heights" is another book that I totally didn't get, even after watching several vids about it. I don't understand what makes something "literature". Who decides these things? So many times I get impatient and am like, "What's your point?" Despite being very intelligent and a good writer of non-fiction, I couldn't just make up a story if my life depended on it. Bartleby the Scrivener nearly drove me mad in 11th grade. Even as an adult, I tried listening to an audiobook of _War and Peace_, and could hear my eyes glazing over! LOL! ]
Thanks for the great comment! I think a lot of people find literature hard to engage with-not everyone has the same interests, of course!-but it’s always been my goal to help translate what I love about literature to everyone. Glad you found it helpful! As for the ending, I think there are a couple of take aways: 1. Hester finds meaning in service and in helping women in need. Her letter then becomes a power for good. 2. This is Romanticism we’re talking about, so milking a bittersweet ending for a lifetime is all the rage. Gules is just an archaic word for red. So, the statement actually just says, “In a black field, a red letter” describing her tombstone. I think the archaic words sable and gules are supposed to be from Surveyor Pew, the guy from whose ancient historical records Hawthorne is supposedly creating this novel (see “The Custom House” for clarification on this point). If that doesn’t make sense, I can clarify further. Thanks for checking out my channel! I don’t have a video over Wuthering Heights yet, but maybe I’ll get to that someday! Have an awesome day!
Hiii , I'm watching this video this moments 😅، I really like the way you summarize and analyze the plot , wish you the best regards. Thanks Could you please write what the plot diagram is called!
@@Nancenotes thank you 🌸🌸🌸 by the way , I like your way of analyzing novels Would you please make a video on wich you analyze Thomas Pain's common sense pleaaase
Yes! She definitely does feel guilty, but that doesn't mean she accepts the abuse and cruelty of the rest of her neighbors. She accepts her punishment, and even feels necessary to do penance (sewing less refined clothes and charity, covering her hair, etc). But she also has self-respect and pride, something that the rest of the town tries to beat out of her. She's strong, and she doesn't cower beneath them. She moves on with her life after her mistakes (at least as best she can given the consequences), even if the rest of the world doesn't. The rest of them want to use her as a whipping post and a scapegoat to take the attention off of themselves. We discover fairly early on that almost all of them have hidden sin as well, but they abuse her hypocritically just because she's in the limelight. She knows she's made a mistake, but she's willing to pay for it, while still not accepting their hypocrisy and goading. Notice though that she feels her mistake wasn't as bad as Chillingworth's because hers was made through love and his was made from hatred (See the forest conversation with D). Hope this helps!
Lol. Good luck. If you want to sound like you know the characters really well, check out my analyses of Chillingworth and Pearl. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mn2jWTtdD-o.html
"Challenge" not in the sense of challenging to a contest, but rather in the sense of questioning his authority or validity or right to act as he does. She asks him to justify himself and step down from his behavior. That's her challenge.
Good Question, Adrian. To start with, it's a big A, right? So it looks at first glance to be a repetition of the central symbol of Hester's A, which we've also seen in Pearl's dress, in the suit of armor, etc, up to the discovery that it's on Dimmesdale as well. But the meteor is also interpreted differently by the townspeople who believe it represents "Angel." In the next couple chapters, we come to learn that even the A on Hester's chest is shifting in meaning to "Able." One of the fun things about symbols is that they don't really boil down to one meaning but rather draw out the complexity of the ideas in the story. Here Dimmesdale thinks the meteor is a heavenly declaration of the awful guilt that's destroying his soul, but we also see that he may only be partially right or giving us one perspective. It might demonstrate how clueless the people are about Dimmesdale's sin, but it might also demonstrate that everything, even a branded and labeled person, is more than what it seems. Does that help?
Three problems with your conclusion: 1. The book says Chillingworth is the "Black Man." (End of Chapter 4 first and then several other places). It wasn't me. 2. The Puritan mythic figure of the "Black Man" is not African American nor is his skin tone black. He's Caucasian, but he wears black robes and has a sooty face from working with Hell fire. Look at the story "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving for a good description of him. So if I appear to be making a judgment against him, it can't be because I'm racist. At most, it means I'm anti-Satan. 3. Chillingworth is not a protagonist. He may be complex and even sympathetic in my opinion, but he's definitely an antagonist. Thanks. Good luck with your studies.
