Socratic Seminar Discussion Prompts



Socratic Seminar—The Scarlet Letter

Directions: Take thoughtful, organized notes on the following topics for our Socratic seminar. Make sure to take a clear, well-defined, and well-supported stance in each response. You may connect personal experiences, hypothetical scenarios, and other first-hand accounts to justify your response; however, you must support responses with textual evidence from The Scarlet Letter to earn full credit in the seminar (see rubric). Then at the bottom of the page, include one question you have about the text-be sure to include actual text (citation, page #) in your question

Scoring: 25 points for the worksheet and 25 points for the discussion

Discussion Prompts

Public punishment of criminals is more effective than private, isolated punishment in deterring other people from committing the same crimes.

Criminals, abusers, and deviants have a much greater right to attribute their wrongdoings to natural or inherent causes (genetics, hereditary, family figure influence, childhood abuse, etc.) than to attribute them to societal, cultural, or individual problems.

A person who knowingly seeks revenge with the intent to maliciously harm the person who has wronged him/her is less evil and hateful than this original person who knowingly wronged or hurt him/her in the first place.

Critics have commented that Hawthorne’s narrator seems to be of two minds. Sometimes this narrator seems to adopt an opinion that they must repent for and atone for what they have done. At other times, the narrator seems to adopt the opinion that Dimmesdale’s and Hester’s actions are understandable given the circumstances, and that love such as theirs represents something truly sacred. Where does the narrator stand, or is he of two minds? Where do you stand on the issue?

Your question:

Socratic Seminar—The Scarlet Letter

Directions: Take thoughtful, organized notes on the following topics for our Socratic seminar. Make sure to take a clear, well-defined, and well-supported stance in each response. You may connect personal experiences, hypothetical scenarios, and other first-hand accounts to justify your response; however, you must support responses with textual evidence from The Scarlet Letter to earn full credit in the seminar (see rubric). Then at the bottom of the page, include one question you have about the text-be sure to include actual text (citation, page #) in your question.

Scoring: 25 points for the worksheet and 25 points for the discussion

Discussion Prompts

It is easier to forgive someone who has wronged you if you wait an extended period before passing your final judgment on him or her. Their admission or confession of wrongdoing makes it easier to forgive them. This does or does not depend on whether this confession was made publicly/to a group or only to you?

Some critics have called The Scarlet Letter the proto-feminist American novel. What evidence from the novel supports or refutes this claim?

Sin cannot be washed away completely; it leaves a permanent mark.

In what way do the Puritan characters (or Puritan society) exemplify hypocrisy? How do certain characters’ actions or the narrator’s commentary reveal both individual and societal hypocrisy?

Your question:

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