The Scarlet Letter



The Scarlet Letter

Optional Reading Guide

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Year: 1850

Characters: Hester Prynne, the local adulteress who struggles to find an identity for herself in a straight-laced Puritan town. Other characters to watch: Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Pearl.

Hawthorne weaves around his characters a psychologically powerful tale of the consequences of breaking a moral code. Skillfully, Hawthorne investigates how guilt and sin operate on the innermost workings of his characters’ minds.

Literary scholars have hailed Hester Prynne as the first true heroine of American literature. Hawthorne characterizes her as a whole person— woman, mother, sinner, and member of the community—rather than as a stereotype, as so many writers at that time cast their female characters.

Hester Prynne has a secret. No, not the fact that she committed adultery. Everybody in her Puritan town knows about that. Between the baby and the scarlet letter A on her chest, her sin isn’t something that Hester can really do much to hide. But her partner in crime? That’s a deep, dark secret. And Hester isn’t telling.

So who is Hester’s fellow adulterer in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter? You’ll find out long before Hester’s vengeful husband does. But that’s mostly because Hawthorne’s novel is a study in guilt—how guilt changes us, and how guilt (and sin) affect our community.

[pic]

The Scarlet Letter Chapters 1–8

Focus Question: How does our society punish people who break the law?

Setting a Purpose: Read to find out what part shame plays in the punishments inflicted by colonial Boston’s penal code.

The Scarlet Letter Chapters 9–15

Focus Question: What effects does guilt have on a person’s life?

Setting a Purpose: Read to find out how Hester and other characters deal with their guilt.

The Scarlet Letter Chapters 16–24

Focus Question: In what ways does our society demand that we conform to certain conventions?

Setting a Purpose: Read to find out how Hester copes with the demands of her Puritan society.

What’s With the Custom House? *that we were not required to read*

Though Hawthorne always had doubts about the quality of his work, he was especially concerned about The Scarlet Letter. He felt the story was too bleak, and so he wrote what he called an introductory essay to add interest to his readers. In a letter to Horatio Bridge dated 4 February 1850, Hawthorne wrote:

There is an introduction to this book—giving a sketch of my Custom-House life, with an imaginative touch here and there—which perhaps may be more widely attractive than the main narrative.

Scholars disagree as to the value of “The Custom House.” Many feel, contrary to Hawthorne’s opinion, that the novel stands well enough on its own without the essay.

“The Custom House” is semi-autobiographical. Hawthorn is generally considered to be the narrator, and speaks of his work at the Custom House, of losing that position, and of his Salem ancestors. The narrator supposedly discovers Hester Prynne’s embroidered letter and some notes about what happened to her. The Narrator feels compelled to tell her story, but unable to do so in the stifling atmosphere of the Custom House.

The Scarlet Letter: Optional Questions to Assist in Comprehension

Chapter 1, The Prison Door

1. Where is the prison door located?

2. For what two purposes did the founders of a new colony set aside land?

3. What one thing in the setting of the prison door has been kept alive in history?

4. What does the author present to the reader in Chapter 1?

Chapter 2 , The Market-Place

5. Why is Hester Prynne being punished?

6. How do the "gossips" feel about the punishment the magistrates have set for Hester?

7. Where was Hester born?

8. Who did she marry?

Chapter 3, "Recognition"

9. What physical characteristic enables Hester to identify the stranger standing beside the Indian in the crowd?

10. What does the stranger mean when he says, "But he shall be known!--he shall be known!--he shall be known!"?

11. What was Hester's reaction upon spotting the stranger?

12. Who is the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale?

Chapter 4, "The Interview"

13. Who is Roger Chillingsworth?

14. What does Chillingsworth want Hester to tell him?

15. What does Hester mean when she says, "I felt no love, nor feigned any?"

16. What promise does Chillingsworth ask Hester to make?

17. What promise does Chillingsworth make to Hester?

Chapter 5, "Hester at her Needle"

18. Describe the place where Hester and Pearl lived.

19. How did Hester earn money to support herself and Pearl?

20. Hester's work was in great demand among the fashionable town-for every occasion except one. What was the exception?

21. How does Hester react to the vicious abuse of the "respectable" women and thoughtless children of the community?

Chapter 6, "Pearl"

22. Why did Hester name her daughter Pearl?

23. On page 92, Hawthorne comments on the Puritan community's treatment of Hester for her sin and God's treatment of her. What is the irony of these two treatments?

24. As a baby, what was the very first thing that Pearl noticed?

25. Hester is tormented by a question that Pearl teasingly asks her. What is the question?

Chapter 7, The Governor's Hall

26. Why does Hester want to talk with Governor Bellingham?

27. What does the scarlet letter look like reflected in the polished breastplate of the suit of armor?

28. What effect does this reflecting surface have upon the appearance of Pearl's impish smile?

Chapter 8, The Elf-Child and the Minister

29. This chapter has three female and four male characters. Who are they?

30. Why does Governor Bellingham want to take Pearl from Hester?

31. Who convinces the Governor that Pearl should remain with her mother, Hester?

Chapter 9, The Leech

32. Are the townspeople happy to have Chillingsworth, the leech, in their community?

33. What is the relationship between Chillingsworth and Reverend Dimmesdale?

34. What change has come over Chillingsworth since he has come to live in Boston?

Chapter 10, The Leech and His Patient

35. What are the reasons Dimmesdale gives for some men keeping their sins hidden from the world?

36. Why is Chillingsworth interested in the Reverend Dimmesdale?

Chapter 11, The Interior of a Heart

37. What is Chillingsworth doing to Dimmesdale?

38. As Dimmesdale's suffering becomes more painful and his health deteriorates, what happens with his popularity among the people of his church?

39. Why do you think Dimmesdale beats himself with a whip?

Chapter 12, The Minister's Vigil

40. What is a vigil?

41. How many years have passed since Hester stood on the scaffold?

42. Why does Dimmesdale stand on the scaffold?

43. Where does Dimmesdale see an immense letter "A"?

Chapter 13, Another View of Hester

44. How many years have passed since Pearl was born?

45. How has public opinion of Hester changed?

46. The embroidered letter "A" is now said by many to stand for what?

Chapter 14, Hester and the Physician

47. What changes have taken place in Chillingworth during the period of Pearl's birth?

48. What does Hester ask of Chillingworth?

49. Does Chillingworth grant Hester's request?

Chapter 15, Hester and Pearl

50. Who does Hester blame for setting off the chain of events that have led to her and Dimmesdale's suffering?

51. Does Pearl know what the letter "A" on Hester's bosom stands for?

52. With what action by Dimmesdale does Pearl compare Hester's wearing the letter "A"?

Chapter 16, A Forest Walk

53. Why does Hester go to the forest?

54. What reason does Pearl give for the sunshine running away from Hester?

55. Who is the "Black Man"?

Chapter 17, The Pastor and his Parishioner

56. What is Dimmesdale's "sin?"

57. What does Dimmesdale mean when he says, "Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret"?

58. What secret does Hester reveal to Dimmesdale?

59. What solution does Hester suggest to Dimmesdale?

60. How do Hester and Dimmesdale feel about each other?

Chapter 18, A Flood of Sunshine

61. Is Hester a Puritan? Was she ever a Puritan?

62. What plans do Hester and Dimmesdale make?

63. What symbol does Nature give when Hester removes the letter "A"?

Chapter 19, The Child at the Brook-side

64. What causes Pearl to burst into a passionate, shrieking fit of rage?

65. What does Pearl do when Dimmesdale kisses her?

Chapter 20, The Minister in a Maze

66. What change takes place in Dimmesdale?

67. What plans do Hester and Dimmesdale have?

Chapter 21, The New England Holiday

68. What bad news does Hester learn at the marketplace celebration of Election Day?

Chapter 22, The Procession

69. What disappoints Hester during the procession?

70. What message is Pearl asked to give to her mother?

Chapter 23, The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter

71. Why does Dimmesdale confess his "sin?"

72. How does Chillingworth react to Dimmesdale's confession?

73. What does Pearl after she kisses Dimmesdale?

Chapter 24, Conclusion

74. What theories did people have regarding a scarlet letter on Dimmesdale's chest?

75. What does Hawthorne say about hatred and love?

76. What makes Pearl the "richest heiress of her day, in the New World?"

77. What happens to Hester?

78. What happens to Pearl?

79. What happens to the scarlet letter?

80. What is on the tombstone of the graves of Hester and Dimmesdale?

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download