Can someone help me answer these questions about the scarlet letter?

Chapter 1



1. Describe the story’s setting.



2. Since Hawthorne has described a prison, a cemetery, ugly weeds and a wild

rosebush, what do you think the story will be about?



3. What do you expect the mood of the novel will be?





Chapter 2



1. What is Hester’s sin?



2. What is the public view, expressed by women outside the prison, of

Hester’s sin?



3. By including the comments of the women, what do you think Hawthorne is

suggesting about this society?

4. What is Hester’s punishment?





Chapter 3



1. As she stands on the scaffold, who appears in the crowd and what is

Hester’s reaction?

2. Where has Chillingworth been? What motion does he make to Hester and why?



3. Who is Dimmesdale?



4. What appeal does Dimmesdale use to convince Hester to reveal the baby’s

father? Do you agree with him?

5. What is Hester’s attitude toward both her sin and her punishment?



6. One way Hester endures her punishment is by dreaming of her past. What

does the reader learn of Hester’s past by this flashback?





Chapter 4



1. Why does Hester fear Chillingworth?



2. What is Chillingworth’s attitude toward Hester? Explain.



3. What does Chillingworth intend to do? Why?



4. What does Chillingworth ask Hester to promise? Why does she agree to

this?



5. Hester says to Chillingworth, “Thy acts like mercy,…But thy words

interpret thee as a terror!” What does she mean? What has Chillingworth

said that gives her that impression?

6. What descriptive details does Hawthorne give the reader about

Chillingworth that reinforce the image of him as someone to be feared?

7. What is implied in Chillingworth’s last line, “No, not thine”?





Chapter 5



1. In this chapter the narrator summarizes months of Hester’s life.

Describe Hester’s life. How does she earn a living” How is she treated?

2. Give two reasons why Hester decides to remain in Boston when she could

have easily moved to a less restrictive colony?

3. Explain Hester’s reaction to the insults she receives.



4. How has Hester changed?



5. Explain the significance of the position of Hester’s home.



6. In your opinion, why do people allow Hester to sew for them?





Chapter 6



1. Describe Pearl.



2. How does Hawthorne say Pearl’s “uncontrollable” behavior can be explained?



3. As Hawthorne puts it, explain the ambiguity concerning Pearl.



4. Why does Hester ask Pearl, “Art thou my child?”



5. According to Hawthorne, what purpose does Pearl have in respect to

Hester’s destiny?

6. How is an actual pearl created in nature? How is Pearl’s name symbolic?



Chapter 7



1. Why does Hester go to the governor’s house?

2. How is Pearl dressed, and what is her dress compared to?

3. How does the incident with the breastplate further develop the

symbolism?



Chapter 8



1. Consider the descriptions of the governor’s house. What is Hawthorne

suggesting about the governor?

2. How do the magistrates react to Pearl? Why?

3. How does Hester behave towards the magistrate? Why?

4. Why is Hester able to keep Pearl? What are the arguments that convince

the magistrates?

5. A) What is Pearl’s response when asked by the governor, Who made thee,

child?”

B) What prompts Pearl’s answer? What symbolism is developed here?

6. What happens at the end of the chapter that illustrates the minister’s

point?

7. Describe how Dimmesdale has changed.

8. Describe how Chillingworth has changed.

9. What twofold role does Reverend Dimmesdale say Pearl plays?



Chapter 9



1. Hawthorne uses the “either/or” device as an explanation of the minister’s

health. Give both explanations.

2. A) Why does Dimmesdale reject the offer of help?

B) What finally persuades him to accept the offer?

3. Explain the title of this chapter, “The Leech.” What is the twofold

meaning?

4. Describe Chillingworth’s method of approaching an illness that he is to

treat.

5. Describe the relationship between Dimmesdale and Chillingworth.

6. Although some people in the community feel that God has sent

Chillingworth to heal their minister, other people have a different view.

Explain the second view and the basis for this idea of Chillingworth.

7. Give an interpretation for the last and the next to the last paragraph in

this

chapter.



Chapter 10



1. What action of Dimmesdale’s suggests that he is hiding something on his

chest?

2. How do the black flowers initiate a discussion on “hidden sins”?

3. What explanation, perhaps rationalization, does Dimmesdale offer for not

confessing and thereby revealing a hidden sin?

4. In this context, what does Chillingworth mean when he mutters, “A strange

sympathy betwixt soul and body! Were it only for the art’s sake I must

search

this matter to the bottom!”?

5. A) What does Chillingworth do while Dimmesdale sleeps? Symbolically,

what has Chillingworth done to Dimmesdale?

B) What do you think Chillingworth sees in/on Dimmesdale?

C) Describe Chillingworth’s reaction to what he sees. Why do you think

he reacts this way? What is Hawthorne suggesting about him?



Chapter 11



1. Explain the narrator’s statement, “He [Chillingworth] became not a

spectator only, but a chief actor, in the poor minister’s interior world.”

2. What makes Dimmesdale such a good minister?

3. What is ironic about Dimmesdale’s public assertions of his guilt?

4. Explain the ways Dimmesdale tortures himself and is responsible for his

own suffering.

5. A) In what way are both Chillingworth and Dimmesdale to be pitied?

B) Whom do you pity most? Why?

6. What is Hawthorne suggesting about the effects of sin?



Chapter 12



1. The second scaffold scene in the book occurs here. Critics consider this

part as, “Hawthorne at his best.” Why is Dimmesdale on the scaffold? Why

does he climb the scaffold at night? What do we learn is the source of his

chest pain?

2. According to critics, Hawthorne, as an artist of the psychological, has

Dimmesdale express his subconscious feelings. Describe what Hawthorne

has Dimmesdale do that suggests his subconscious mind.

3. Why are there so many of the other characters walking around so late at

night?

4. How does Dimmesdale feel as he holds Pearl’s hand? Why?

5. Why does Pearl pull away from Dimmesdale?

6. Describe the two seemingly supernatural occurrences. What effect do

they have?

7. How is the symbolism of the letter “A” continued?

8. How does Dimmesdale behave the next day?



Chapter 13



(This chapter, which follows the dramatic intensity of the previous one, is

in the form of a summary by the narrator. Pearl is now seven years old.)



1. What is the reader told about Hester’s position in the community?

2. How is the letter being interpreted?

3. How does Hester compare to her partner in sin?

4. Why, according to the narrator, has her natural beauty diminished? What

could bring it back?

5. What question does Hawthorne raise about love and Hester?

6. In what way is Hester an emancipated feminist?

7. Explain: “It is remarkable, that persons who speculate the most boldly

often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of

society. The thought suffices them…”

8. Has the scarlet letter done to Hester what the Puritans wanted it to?

Explain the irony.

9. In the last page of the chapter, which returns to the plot, what does

Hester

resolve to do? Why?



Chapter 14



1. In what way does Chillingworth look like the devil? Why?

2. Why does Chillingworth think he has a double reason for punishing

Dimmesdale?

3. What pleas of Hester’s arouse sympathy and admiration in Chillingworth?

4. What does Hester ask of Chillingworth? What is his response?

5. Do you think Hawthorne meant for the reader to see Chillingworth as “the

devil”? Explain.



Chapter 15



1. After Hester leaves Chillingworth, the narrator follows Hester’s

thoughts. How does she feel about Chillingworth? Explain.

2. The narrator asks, “Had seven long years, under the torture of the

scarlet letter, inflicted so much of misery, and wrought out no

repentance?” In your opinion, has Hester repented her sin?

3. What has Pearl been doing? How does this show that she is like her

mother?

4. How does Pearl answer her mother’s questions as to why she wears the

letter?

5. When Pearl repeatedly asks her mother about the meaning of the “A,” why,

in your opinion, doesn’t Hester confide in Pearl?



Chapter 16



1. A) Why has Hester taken Pearl and gone into the forest? How does she

feel?

B) How does the atmosphere in the forest reflect her mood?

2. As Hester and Pearl walk into the forest, Hawthorne develops many of his

images. Explain the following:

sunlight and darkness



the pathway



the mark of the “Black Man”



the sorrow of the brook



3. In what way does Hester acknowledge her sin to Pearl?



Chapter 17



1. How does Hawthorne reinforce his theme of hidden sin once again?

2. Describe Dimmesdale’s reaction when Hester forces herself to tell him

who Chillingworth is.

3. A) Why does Dimmesdale forgive Hester?

B) According to Dimmesdale, who is the one worse than “the polluted

priest”? Why?

4. What “new horror” occurs to Dimmesdale?

5. Explain Hester’s statement to Dimmesdale, “Wilt thou die for very

weakness?”

6. A) What does Hester give Dimmesdale?

B) What is suggested in the last two lines?



Chapter 18



1. What contrast does the narrator point out between Hester and Dimmisdale?

2. Why does Dimmesdale “resolve to flee, and not alone”?

3. A) Describe the “exhilarating effect” of this decision on Hester and

Dimmesdale.

B) How does Hawthorne use symbolism to reinforce this effect?

4. How does Hawthorne reinforce his idea that “Nature,…never subjugated by

human law,” was in sympathy with the union of Hester and Dimmesdale?

5. What idea is suggested by Pearl’s slow approach and Dimmesdale’s fear of

Pearl?



Chapter 19



1. Why does Pear “burst into a fit of passion” when she stands across the

brook from her mother?

2. How has Hawthorne used the symbol of the scarlet letter again?

3. How does Pearl react to her mother’s assertion that Dimmesdale loves them?

4. How does Pearl behave toward the minister? How can this be explained?



Chapter 20



1. Describe the minister’s wicked impulses as he returns to town.

2. On a psychological level, what is Hawthorne suggesting about

Dimmesdale’s subconscious mind?

3. What does Dimmesdale wonder?

4. Do you think Dimmesdale has committed a “deadly sin” by planning to

escape with

Hester?



Chapter 21



1. In this chapter Hawthorne makes frequent mention of the colors gray,

black (sable), and brown. What is he suggesting with his emphasis on those

colors?

2. What bad news does Hester learn from the ship captain?

3. In addition to providing more information, what other purpose does this

chapter serve?

4. How does Pearl’s comment on the bahavior of Reverend Dimmesdale further

point out the light / darkness contrast?

5. What do the darkness and the light symbolize?



Chapter 22



1. Explain three things that depress Hester in this chapter.

2. What is different about Dimmesdale?

3. Again, what does Pearl want from Dimmesdale?

4. Why does Hawthorne end this chapter with the remarks, “The sainted

minister in the church! The woman of the scarlet letter in the market-place!”



Chapter 23



1. When this chapter opens, why does Dimmesdale stand “on the very proudest

eminence of superiority . . .”? (How has he moved his people?)

2. As Dimmesdale leaves the church and approaches Hester, what does he do?

3. What is Chillingworth’s reaction? Explain Chillingworth’s statement, “[t]

here was no one place . . . thou couldst have escaped me; save on this very

scaffold!”

4. What does Hester answer when Dimmesdale says, “Is not this better…than

what we dreamed of in the forest?”

5. What is Dimmesdale’s most dramatic revelation to “the people of New

England”?

6. What does Dimmesdale ask Pearl? What effect does this have on Pearl?

7. How do you explain Dimmesdale’s parting words to Hester?



Chapter 24



1. What theories does Hawthorne offer the reader about the scarlet letter

imprinted in the minister’s flesh?

2. A) What happens to Chillingworth?

B) What does he give Pearl?

3. What, as far as the narrator knows, becomes of Pearl?

4. Finally, explain Hawthorne’s conclusion for Heste

Can someone help me answer these questions about the scarlet letter?
The Scarlet Letter opens with an expectant crowd standing in front of a Boston prison in the early 1640s. When the prison door opens, a young woman named Hester Prynne emerges, with a baby in her arms, and a scarlet letter "A" richly embroidered on her breast. For her crime of adultery, to which both the baby and the letter attest, she must proceed to the scaffold and stand for judgment by her community.



While on the scaffold, Hester remembers her past. In particular, she remembers the face of a "misshapen" man, "well stricken in years," with the face of a scholar. At this moment, the narrator introduces an aged and misshapen character, who has been living "in bonds" with "Indian" captors. He asks a bystander why Hester is on the scaffold. The brief story is told: two years earlier, Hester had preceded her husband to New England. Her husband never arrived. In the meantime, she bore a child; the father of the infant has not come forward. As this stranger stares at Hester, she stares back: a mutual recognition passes between them.



On the scaffold, Boston's highest clergyman, John Wilson, and Hester's own pastor, Rev. Dimmesdale, each ask her to reveal the name of her partner in crime. Reverend Dimmesdale makes a particularly powerful address, urging her not to tempt the man to lead a life of sinful hypocrisy by leaving his identity unnamed. Hester refuses.



After the ordeal of her public judgment, the misshapen man from the marketplaceher long lost husbandvisits her, taking the name Roger Chillingworth. When she refuses to identify the father of her child, he vows to discover him and take revenge. He makes Hester swear to keep his identity a secret.



Hester Prynne : Hester Prynne is the central and most important character in The Scarlet Letter. Hester was married to Roger Chillingworth while living in England and, later, Amsterdama city to which many English Puritans moved for religious freedom. Hester preceded her husband to New England, as he had business matters to settle in Amsterdam, and after approximately two years in America she committed adultery with the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale.



The novel begins as Hester nears the end of her prison term for adultery. While adultery was considered a grave threat to the Puritan community, such that death was considered a just punishment, the Puritan authorities weighed the long absence and possible death of her husband in their sentence. Thus, they settled on the punishment of permanent public humiliation and moral example: Hester was to forever wear the scarlet letter A on the bodice of her clothing.



While seemingly free to leave the community and even America at her will, Hester chooses to stay. As the narrator puts it, "Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul." According to this reasoning, Hester assumes her residence in a small abandoned cottage on the outskirts of the community.



While the novel is, in large part, a record of the torment Hester suffers under the burden of her symbol of shame, eventually, after the implied marriage of her daughter Pearl and the death of Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, Hester becomes an accepted and even a highly valued member of the community. Instead of being a symbol of scorn, Hester, and the letter A, according to the narrator, "became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too." The people of the community even come to Hester for comfort and counsel in times of trouble and sorrow because they trust her to offer unselfish advice toward the resolution of upsetting conflict. Thus, in the end, Hester becomes an important figure in preserving the peace and stability of the community
Reply:Matthew, Matthew....read the book! It's not very long...you can do it!
Reply:he he. you actually got someone to answer it for u! job well done.
Reply:do your own homework