Illustration of the Custom House from early edition of The Scarlet Letter(courtesy of James R. Osgood and Co.)
A student interested in history or architecture might wish to look
at the information on merchants
of the eighteenth century in Salem, the images of the houses
where Elias Haskett Derby lived, and the image of Derby
Wharf shortly after Hawthorne's time. Then the student might use
those sources along with the description Hawthorne gives of Salem at
the beginning
of the "Custom House" chapter to write an essay discussing how maritime
Salem of Hawthorne's time, in the mid-nineteenth century, differs from
the Salem of the Golden Age of the late 1700s.
A student who enjoys creative writing might wish to look at
the architecture
of the Custom House and the panoramic
tour of Hawthorne's office and then use these materials
and the sections of "The Custom-House" chapter in which Hawthorne describes
life at the Custom House and his fellow employees to write a creative, first
person piece from Hawthorne's viewpoint which reveals his attitudes toward
his job and the people at the Custom House.
A student interested in the character of Hester Prynne might view
a photograph
of a painting of Hester by George Henry Boughton in 1881 and read
the remarks
of the late Dr. Joseph Flibbert of Salem College on the character
in an earlier Hawthorne work, "The Gentle Boy," who might have been
the model for Hester Prynne, read "The
Gentle Boy, ", and examine the movie
poster for the 1965 version of The Scarlet Letter and the
compare these depictions with the Hester of The Scarlet Letter.
