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Megan Marshall on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Episode 2

The Letter in Red Tape

Featuring Megan Marshall

Audio episode · 18 min

Megan Marshall on The Scarlet Letter

Before chapter one, Hawthorne fastened a sketch to his novel that scandalized Salem and doubled as a publicity stunt. Marshall reads the Custom-House as only a working archivist can: the politics under the mild-mannered pose, the bundle of papers tied in real red tape, and the pledge a writer makes to the dead.

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What Does the A on Hester's Chest Actually Mean?

The A never holds still: adulteress at the scaffold, able and armor at the cottage, awe by the end — Marshall tracks a symbol its makers couldn't control.

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Two Kinds of Nonconformity

Hester breaks the world's law in her mind; Thoreau breaks it with his feet. Marshall and Kaag on what deciding your own law actually costs.

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Is The Scarlet Letter a Feminist Novel?

Yes, Marshall argues: Hawthorne put Margaret Fuller's feminist theory in Hester's mind, atoning for a family history of silencing women — blind spots and all.

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Did Hester Prynne Sin Alone?

No — and Marshall reads Hawthorne's suspended question as widening the guilt past Dimmesdale and Chillingworth to the whole community standing in judgment.

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