The Custom-House - Introductory. Summary. Hawthorne begins The Scarlet Letter with a long introductory essay that generally functions as a preface but, more specifically, accomplishes four significant goals: outlines autobiographical information about the author, describes the conflict between the artistic impulse and the commercial environment, defines the romance novel (which Hawthorne is Summary: The Custom-House: Introductory. This introduction provides a frame for the main narrative of The Scarlet Letter. The nameless narrator, who shares quite a few traits with the book’s author, takes a post as the “chief executive officer,” or surveyor, of the Salem Custom House. (“Customs” are the taxes paid on foreign imports into a country; a “customhouse” is the building where these taxes are paid.) In the Custom–House, as before in the Old Manse, I had spent three years—a term long enough to rest a weary brain: long enough to break off old intellectual habits, and make room for new ones: long enough, and too long, to have lived in an unnatural state, doing what was really of no advantage nor delight to any human being, and withholding myself from toil that would, at least, have stilled an unquiet impulse in me
Introduction: “The Custom-House” | The Scarlet Letter | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Lit2Go ETC
A writer of story-books! What kind of a business in life,—what mode of glorifying God, or being serviceable to mankind in his day and generation,—may that be? See Important Quotes Explained. This introduction provides a frame for the main narrative of The Scarlet Letter. He finds the establishment to be a run-down place, situated on a rotting wharf in a half-finished building.
His fellow workers mostly hold lifetime appointments secured by family connections. They are elderly and given to telling the same stories repeatedly. The narrator finds them to be generally incompetent and innocuously corrupt. The narrator spends his days at the customhouse trying to amuse himself because few ships come to Salem anymore. He then reads the manuscript. It is the work of one Jonathan Pue, who was a customs surveyor a hundred years earlier.
The narrator has already mentioned his unease about attempting to make a career out of writing. It will not be factually precise, but he believes that it will be faithful to the spirit and general outline of the original.
While working at the customhouse, surrounded by uninspiring men, the narrator finds himself unable to write. This section introduces us to the narrator and establishes his desire to contribute to American culture. Although this narrator seems to have much in common with Nathaniel Hawthorne himself—Hawthorne also worked as a customs officer, lost his job due to political changes, essay on the custom house, and had Puritan ancestors whose legacy he considered both a blessing and a curse—it is important not to conflate the two storytellers.
The narrator is not just a stand-in for Hawthorne; he is carefully constructed to enhance the book aesthetically and philosophically. Moreover, Hawthorne sets him up to parallel Hester Prynne in significant ways. Like Hester, the narrator spends his days surrounded by people from whom he feels alienated.
In his case, it is his relative youth and vitality that separates him from the career customs officers. The narrator points out the connection between Hester and essay on the custom house when he notes that he will someday be reduced to a name on a custom stamp, much as she has been reduced to a pile of old papers and a scrap of cloth. First, he feels that his Puritan ancestors would find it frivolous, and indeed he is not able to write until he has been relieved of any real career responsibilities.
Second, essay on the custom house, he knows that his audience will be small, mostly because he is relating events that happened some two hundred years ago. His time spent in the company of the other customhouse men has taught the narrator that it will be difficult to write in such a way as to make his story accessible to all types of people—particularly to those no longer young at heart.
The narrator finds writing therapeutic. Yet Hawthorne, like the narrator, had to balance the need to establish a weighty past with the equally compelling need to write an interesting and relevant story. Americanness remains both a promise and a threat, just as the eagle over the customhouse door both offers shelter and appears ready to attack. The tale of the scarlet letter may add to the legitimacy of American history and culture, but in order to do so it essay on the custom house transcend its Americanness and establish a universal appeal: only then can American culture hold its own in the world.
It is filtered first through John Pue and then through the narrator. Ace your assignments with our guide to The Scarlet Letter! Want study tips sent straight to your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletter! Search all of SparkNotes Search Suggestions Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. No Fear Literature Translations Literature Study Guides Glossary of Literary Terms How to Write Literary Analysis. Biography Biology Chemistry Computer Science Drama Economics Film Health History Math Philosophy Physics Poetry Psychology Short Stories Sociology US Government and Politics, essay on the custom house.
SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Summary Plot Overview Video Plot Summary Key Questions and Answers What Does the Ending Mean? Character List Hester Prynne Roger Chillingworth Arthur Dimmesdale Pearl Governor Bellingham Mistress Hibbins. Themes Motifs Symbols Plot analysis Protagonist Antagonist Setting Genre Allusions Style Essay on the custom house of View Tone Foreshadowing Key Facts Is Hester Prynne a feminist? Important Quotes Explained Quotes by Theme Female Independence Guilt Nature vs.
Society Empathy Quotes by Section The Custom-House Chapters 1 — 2 Chapters 3 — 4 Chapters 5 — 6 Chapters 7 — 8 Chapters 9 — 10 Chapters Chapters 13 — 14 Chapters 15 — 16 Chapters 17 — 18 Chapters 19 — 20 Chapters 21 — 22 Chapters 23 — 24 Quotes by Essay on the custom house Hester Prynne Arthur Dimmesdale Roger Chillingworth Pearl Governor Bellingham Quotes by Symbol The Scarlet A The Meteor Pearl Quotes by Setting Boston in the s.
Context Anne Hutchinson and Hester Prynne Hawthorne and the Historical Romance Movie Adaptations Full Book Quiz Section Quizzes The Custom-House: Introductory Chapters Chapters Chapters Chapters Chapters Character List Chapters Chapters Analysis of Major Characters Themes, Motifs, and Symbols Chapters Chapters Chapters Chapters Chapters Study Questions Suggestions for Further Reading Companion Texts, essay on the custom house.
Summary The Custom-House: Introductory. Previous section What Does the Ending Mean? Next section Chapters 1—2. Test your knowledge Take the The Custom-House: Introductory Quick Quiz. Read a translation Read a translation of The Custom-House: Introductory, essay on the custom house. Take a study break Every Shakespeare Play Summed Up in a Quote from The Office. The Scarlet Letter SparkNotes Literature Guide EBOOK EDITION Ace your assignments with our guide to The Scarlet Letter!
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, time: 0:18The Scarlet Letter The Custom-House: Introductory Summary & Analysis | SparkNotes
People like rajgopal chari favoured its importance and interest or skill work they are best made when the children practice initially on an icon essay house the hawthorne - custom of the key skills and strategies to deal with their peers in other countries The first of his ancestors, William Hathorne, is described in Hawthorne's "The Custom House" as arriving with the Massachusetts Bay Colony in "with his Bible and his sword" (26). A further connection can also be seen in his more notable ancestor John Hathorne, who exemplified the level of zealousness in Puritanism with his role as Words The Custom-House - Introductory. Summary. Hawthorne begins The Scarlet Letter with a long introductory essay that generally functions as a preface but, more specifically, accomplishes four significant goals: outlines autobiographical information about the author, describes the conflict between the artistic impulse and the commercial environment, defines the romance novel (which Hawthorne is
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