The Scarlet Letter

What colony is the setting for the novel?

Boston

Where in the colony does the opening chapter take place?

Prison door

For what 2 "practical necessities" did the new colony set aside land?

Prison and cemetary

Who is Anne Hutchinson? How does Hawthorne feel about her?

Excommunicated from Puritan church to Rhode Island; viewed beautiful but dangerous

What 2 possible symbols does the rose have for the reader?

pain and beauty

Name 3 crimes and the punishments that the Puritans might witness

Execution, whipped children, Indian intrusion

What is the relationship between religion and law in Puritan New England?

Identical and interfused

Describe the Puritan women. Use one quote from the book to support your answer.

Less bulkier; thinner; gossipy: "...moral diet not a whit more refined"

What punishments would the Puritan women have given Hester Prynne if it were left to them?

Ironbranding on forehead

What is Hester's sin? Punishment?

Adultery; public condemnation via wearing scarlet letter, humiliation on the scaffold, and temporary jail time

What is astonishing about the "A" on her bodice?

It was elaborately embroidered and stood out with its red cloth with gold thread

Why is Hester taken to the scaffold in the market-place?

To be publicly disgraced and interrogated about who is the father

What things does Hester think about while she is on the scaffold?

Past memories; e.g. her youth and school days, sports, childish quarrels, traits of her maiden years, and her husband

How old is her baby?

3 months

What detail is given to suggest the baby was born in jail?

It had "been acquainted only to the grey twilight of the prison"

Describe the man who is standing on the outskirts of the crowd

A man dressed in Indian attire who had deformed shoulders and a wise face

What prior reference was made in Chapter 2 that reminds the reader of this man?

The flashback of Hester looking in the mirror and seeing a man with a scholar like face.

What gesture does he make to Hester that suggests he knows her?

Points to her and puts his finger in the air, then to "shh"

What does the stranger learn from the townsman next to him?

That Hester had been cheating on him.

Who is the father of Hester's baby?

We don't know yet (but it is Dimmesdale)

What is the usual punishment for adultery? Why is Hester's punishment less severe?

Death; the magistrates do not know who the husband/adulterer yet.

What are Hester's feelings toward the stranger?

She feels that he stands out in some unique way; she sees him as someone who she herself feels self-conscious to

Who is Bellingham? John Wilson?

Bellingham - governor

John Wilson - reverend, clergyman, and scholar of Boston

What do Bellingham and Wilson want Hester to do?

Confess who she had committed adultery with

Describe Dimmesdale.

A young, educated clergyman who was known to be expressive/eloquent, yet was nervous here

What is his relationship to Hester? What does he ask her to reveal?

He is to make Hester confess the truth about her adultery and tell the name of the child's father.

Why won't Hester name the child's father?

She still loves him

How does Hester act when she returns to prison?

Nervous, yet excited

Why does the jailer call a doctor?

The baby is sick

What is the doctor's name?

Roger Chillingworth

Where did the "doctor" learn his skill?

His old studies in alchemy and Indians

Quote 2 lines that indicate the doctor and Hester know each other before this meeting.

1) "Dost thou know me so little, Hester Prynne?"

2) "Even if I imagine a scheme of vengence, what could I do better for my object"

What is the relationship between Chillingworth and Hester?

Husband and wife

Why should Hester's marriage be a failure?

She never loved Chillingworth; he was old; marriage was arranged

Did Hester ever love her husband? Quote Hester to support your answer.

No, "I felt no love, nor feigned any"

What does Chillingworth vow to do?

Find out who Hester had the baby with

What secret does Chillingworth ask Hester to keep?

Don't talk about that Chillingworth is her husband.

What symbol is introduced for Chillingworth in Hester's final lines in this chapter?

Black man = devil

What "general symbol" has Hester become?

One reflecting the reality of sin and frailty

Give at least 2 reasons why Hester does not leave the colony.

1) She needs the infamy

2) Hopes to refind her love

Describe Hester's home.

Small, remote, shore-side cottage

What talent did Hester use to support herself and Pearl?

Sewing

What garments is Hester not allowed to sew?

Bridal wear

What type of dress did Hester wear? Pearl?

Hester - coarse, somber, repenting

Pearl - fanciful and elaborate

What does Hester do that shows she has a charitable nature?

Make coarse garments for the poor

How did the poor, the ladies of Boston, the clergy, and the children treat Hester?

With scorn and villification;

ladies - only like her garments

clergy - preach sin about her

children - laugh at her

What special knowledge does Hester feel the Scarlet Letter gives her?

A new moral sense of recognizing others' sins.

What does the Scarlet Letter mean to Pearl?

It is her play thing

What did the townspeople say about Pearl?

She is tempered and a "demon child"

Name 2 reasons Hester visits Governor Bellingham

To deliver an ordered pair of gloves and to plead not to take away Pearl from her

How are the Scarlet Letter and Pearl alike?

They both, although look beautiful, are scorned and looked down upon

Who are the other visitors at the Governor's house?

Dimmesdale, Wilson, and Chillingworth

How much time has elapsed since the opening scene?

2-3 years

With what creatures of fantasy is Pearl continually compared?

Elves and fairies

How has Chillingworth changed since Hester last saw him?

He has become uglier, darker, more deformed, and older

Why does John Wilson question Pearl?

To see if she has been nurtured in a Christian way

How has Rev. Dimmesdale changed since Hester's public humiliation?

He has become more tired/unhappy and scrawny; his health deteriorated

Who pleads successfully for Hester to keep her child?

Dimmesdale

To which visitor does Pearl respond to lovingly?

Dimmesdale

What new identity has Chillingworth assumed in Boston? Why is he successful?

Physician, the town was rare to doctors; his studies qualified him

To whom in the colony does Chillingworth attach himself as a medical adviser?

Dimmesdale

Describe Dimmesdale's health?

He was becoming pale from studying too much; scrawny

What gesture has become Dimmesdale's habit?

Putting his hand over his heart

Quote a sentence from this chapter that associates Chillingworth with evil

"He was heard to speak of Sir Kenelm Digby...-whose scientific attainments...supernatural...his correspondents or associates."

What "investigation" consumes Chillingworth?

Finding who Pearl's dad is

Who is Chillingworth's main suspect and victim?

Dimmesdale

What is a leech? What double meaning does the word "leech" have?

A bug that sucks blood; double meaning is that it [doctor] sucks the life out of a person

What secret does Chillingworth believe is buried in Dimmesdale's heart?

A connection to Hester

Why would Dimmesdale live with guilt and not confess his sin openly?

He is afraid of how it will affect his congregation

What discovery does Chillingworth make when Dimmesdale "fell into a deep, deep slumber"?

Self inflicted mark on his chest of an "A"

What effect does Reverend Dimmesdale's guilt have upon his popularity in the colony?

Skyrockets and is seen as a "miracle of holiness"

What practices does Dimmesdale begin as a result of his guilt?

Starts fasting, doing vigils, inflicting self-wounds, and punishing himself.

What is a vigil?

Staying up at night for reflection

Where does Dimmesdale hold his vigil?

At Hester's same punishment scaffold

Why are Hester and Pearl out at midnight?

They are returning from making measurements of Winthrop's robe.

What promise does Dimmesdale refuse to make to Pearl?

To stand on the scaffold with Hester and her until noon

What is miraculous about the meteor?

It radiates very brightly, illuminating the town's features as if by a warning from God; makes trail resembling a red "A"

Quote a line that shows Chillingworth as a symbol of eveil.

"So vivid was the expression [Chillingworth's], or so intense the minister's perception of it, that it seemed still to remain painted on the darkness after the meteor vanished, with an effect as if the street and all things else were at once annihilated"

How old is Pearl in this chapter [13]?

7

How has the townspeople's view changed toward Hester?

They no longer bear such a strong scorn for her; regard he scarlet "A" as able (strong-willed, indp)

How has Hester's appearance changed?

She has become more frail and her hair has dilapidated; her beautiful features have deteriorated

What does Hester resolve to do?

Confront Chillingworth to leave Dimmesdale alone

How has Roger Chillingworth changed in the past 7 years?

He has changed from an intellectual look to a guarded, ominous one

Quote a least one line that directly associates Chillingworth with the devil.

"... there came a glance of red light out of his eyes, as if the old man's soul were on fire, and kept on smoldering duskily within his beast, until...blown into a momentary flame"(113).

What does Hester want Chillingworth to do?

Stop torturing Dimmesdale

What revelation is she going to make to Reverend Dimmesdale?

That Chillingworth is her husband

What effect has Chillingworth had on Dimmesdale? Quote a line.

He has made Dimmesdale feel weary and uncomfortable. "He has felt an influence dwelling always upon him like a curse...an eye was working curiously into him, which sought only evil...the eye and hand were mine! [Chillingworth's] (114).

Read Hester's description of Chillingworth carefully. How does she feel about him?

She feels that he is wicked; devilish; she hates him; he is foul, and she has strong vengence

What questions does Pearl ask her mother? Why does this trouble Hester?

What the scarlet letter means, why she wears it, and why Dimmesdale holds his hand over his heart.

It troubles Hester b/c she does not know whether or not to tell Pearl; as if, whether she is at the right age

Where does Hester plan to meet Dimmesdale? Why?

In the open air forest, to tell him the truth

Describe the scene with Hester and Pearl in the sunlight. What symbolic meaning could the sunlight have? Why does sunlight shine on Pearl and not Hester?

The scene is very sentimental yet the sunlight is very sporadic in shining. Sun symbolizes happiness and a new beginning. The sun only shines on Pearl because "she does not wear the scarlet letter on her bosom"

What story has Pearl heard about the "black man"?

That he haunts the forest and offers his heavy-clad book to be signed in blood, which he then marks on the signer

What does the Hester mean when she says "Once in my life, I met the Black Man. This scarlet letter is his mark."

That the scarlet letter embedded was as the result of the "devilish" black man, whose book she had signed, and had inflicted his mark upon

Why does Pearl think the minister holds his hand over his heart? How is there symbolic truth in what she says?

She thinks that the Black Man had inflicted his mark on Dimmesdale. Symbolic because in a way Dimmesdale did sign his book with his act of adultery with Hester, and his mark inflicted was his own punishment for it.

How has Dimmesdale's secret sin affected his life? Quote a line.

He has become miserable and guilty and feels that his role as a minister has depleted. "Hester, I am most miserable! ... What can a ruined soul like mine effect towards...other souls?" (128).

What is Dimmesdale's "secret poison his malignity, infecting all air about him?

Chillingworth and his presence

Form what does Hester hope to save Dimmesdale by telling him the truth about Chillingworth?

Chillingworth's continual torture of him

Does Hester still love Dimmesdale? Quote a line.

Yes: "Why should we not speak it? - [She] still so passionately loved [Dimmesdale]!" (130).

What is Dimmesdale's reaction to the truth?

At first he is shocked, but he calms down and forgives Hester, seeing Chillingworth is the core sinner.

What future plans does Hester suggest to Dimmesdale as a way to escape Chillingworth?

To escape beyond the town, possibly in another rural village or even overseas in Europe