The Scarlet Letter Study Guide Questions

1. What is the primary purpose for the Custom House Introduction?
2. What significant change does Hawthorne admit to making in telling the story contained in the diary?
3.What potential impact will this change have on the story?

1. The primary purpose for the Custom House Introduction is for Nathaniel Hawthorne to inform the audience that he is not trying to offend anyone. He accomplishes this by establishing ethos. "But as thoughts are frozen and utterance benumbed...but still keep the inmost Me behind its veil...methinks maybe autobiographical without violating either the reader's rights or his own". He uses the phrase "Keep the inmost Me behind its veil" to show that though he is the author of this novel, he is speaking through another person and his innermost thoughts and opinions are still going to be behind a veil . He does this to show that if he lets everyone know about his innermost thoughts, someone is going to be hurt. He is expressing ethos, because he could have just been a careless self-centered person; He took people's emotions into consideration.

He is just trying to reassure to the readers that anything that they read in this novel is not meant to hurt anyone. He is just trying to inform people about his experiences and the things that he has seen. He wants people to know what his experiences mean to him and how they've affected him. Through this novel, the audience is tapping into his mind and see how he thinks. It also shows how he reacts to things. He knows that he is taking a risk by exposing himself to outsiders who don't know him from previously. This is why a part of him will be behind a veil.

2. The significant change that Nathaniel Hawthorne admits to making is that he is going to tweak the story a little bit. He is going to put his own twist on some of the things that were written in the story of Hester Prynne. "That the main facts of that story are authorized and authenticated by the document of Mr. Surveyor Pue"(Hawthorne 32). Nathaniel Hawthorne is just going to take away the beef and meat of the story. When I say "meat" I mean that he is going to take away all the small details and change it around and rearrange it a bit. He is going to put in some of his life experiences and work them into the original story. The theme and the main ideas will remain the same, but the details will change.

" What I contend for is the authenticity of the outline"(Hawthorne 32). Nathaniel Hawthorne's main objective is to keep the genuinity of the story alive. One can clearly tell that Hawthorne respects Hester Prynne. He definitely does not want to take credit for her work . He wants her thoughts and experiences to stay alive. Hawthorne might have rearranged this story,because he wants people to identify with it more in the time frame that he is dwelling in. The original story was written way before Nathaniel Hawthorne,so the people in the new era would feel like a stranger to the events that went on on in the novel. This is the main reason he made his changes.
3. The potential impact that this change will have on the story is that it is going to make it more interesting to the audience. Instead of just bare facts, For example: this happened ,then that happened. Nathaniel Hawthorne fattens the story up with lots of rhetorical elements. It draws the audience in and it keeps them interested. By changing the story, Nathaniel Hawthorne will be able to reach out to the audience. He can make it so that the audience can experience the story line. It would make the story even more realistic.

By changing the story line, Nathaniel Hawthorne will be able to fit it perfectly to the wants and needs of that particular era. That era will be able to relate more to what is going on. They would relate better, because those events are what they are also going through. Hawthorne would also be able to let people see a little part of himself. He does this the same way that the original writer first did to the story. Overall, the major impact is that the audience can be able to relate to it more.