The Market Place, from Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter"

Felix Octavius Carr Darley American
 Related author Nathaniel Hawthorne American

Not on view

Darley illustrates Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter, A Romance" (published 1850). His drawing was reproduced in 1879 as the first print in a set of twelve "Compositions in Outline." Set in seventeenth-century Boston, the story explores the consequences of a liason between Hester Prynne and the Puritan pastor Arthur Dimmesdale. When Hester becomes pregnant, she refuses to identify her child's father, is imprisoned, and forced to wear a red letter "A" on her dress (to mark her as an adultress). This image responds to chapter 2, where Hester leaves prison to endure public humiliation on the town scaffold. The text describes women resentful of Hester's beauty, who find her punishment too lenient–figures shown here below the steps. See 14.111.1–.4 for other drawings from the set.

The Market Place, from Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", Felix Octavius Carr Darley (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1822–1888 Claymont, Delaware), Pen and black ink with graphite and pale blue wash

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The Market Place, from Nathaniel Hawthorne's
The Market Place, from Nathaniel Hawthorne's

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