Essays due tomorrow, I'm in trouble

[Lokisand]

I seriously need help understanding this novel.
I've tried reading it but I can't seem to focus and I don't comprehend half the words in the first chapter.

Essay questions -

1. Using the Scarlet Letter, explain how Hawthorn uses light and dark imagery thematically in the novel. Consider, for example, how descriptions of light and shadow accompany descriptions of Hester, Pearl, Roger Chillingworth, etc.

2. Explain how the Crucible and the Scarlet Letter are alike and different in their portrayals of Puritan life in early America.


Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp is much appreciated. :)

[mono]

Hello, Lokisand, welcome to the forum.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, as many readers have found, can seem quite difficult to understand - both in plot and in finding metaphors. I, personally, loved the novel, having read it in high school as required, and Hawthorne surely dove into some serious thought while composing the work.
To tell all honesty, for your first question, I cannot recall the novel's content well enough to answer it ideally; however, I would highly recommend browsing SparkNote's features of the novel (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet/).
For your second question, I have never compared Arthur Miller's popular play, The Crucible with The Scarlet Letter, but I can certainly notice many, many similarities; and if you have had the hopeful pleasure of reading The Crucible, you can, perhaps, see them, too.
Miller's play and Hawthorne's novel seem strikingly similar because nearly all of the characters in both works place a great value on religion/spirituality and its application in morals, law, and material and non-material values. Both works, also, I think, exposed some of the seemingly superstitious-like beliefs, such as the idea of witches casting spells, voodoo, and the like (which I think Miller especially emphasized).
How the two works differ regards, specifically, the characters. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, a combination of religious representatives (ministers) and lawmakers (judges) confront the apparent "evil-doers," sentencing them to prison (some eventually to death), through, now considered, greatly flawed means. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, one of the apparent "evil-doers" (Arthur Dimmesdale) has the employment of a preacher (just like one of the men who went to prison in Miller's play), but he eventually admits his faults, eventually suffering scorn from his fellow citizens, but, until then, suffers only from his own knowing of sin.
I hope this has helped, Lokisand, and I wish you luck!

[Lokisand]

Thank you very much!

I browsed through SparkNotes and found just what I needed, and I appreciate your information on the similarities between texts.

Now to find a printer.. haha.