Annotated Bibliography

Claudia Durst Johnson.  “The Scarlet Letter: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents.” Greenwood Press (1995) Print.

 Johnson suggests that part of the powerful intensity of The Scarlet Letter comes from Hawthorne's portrayal of the strength and waste of Hester's deep love for a man and for her child. This portrayal is most likely drawn from his relationship with two women-his mother and Margaret Fuller. Johnson explains that Hawthorne’s mother’s first child, Ebe, had been conceived when she was unmarried, several months before her marriage to Hawthorne's father. Like Hester, she had observed society, Salem, from the outside;  she was unable to participate in the social life around her, withdrawing to Maine where she had more control over her daily life in a house built for her and her children. It was there that Hawthorne had played as a boy by a brook, Dingley Brook, and sadly observed to his sister in a letter that his mother had begun to wear a "cap" just as Hester hides her beauty until the Brook scene.