Symbols:
The rose by the jail house: p. 43
Physical corruption: p. 116 (c10 "You would tell me, then...") How is sickness a symbol of sin? What is the irony two ¶s later?
The Scaffold & Marketplace: p. 206 (c21 "Hold thy peace...")
The Forest: p. 156 (c16 "The road..."); p. 169 (c17 "Is the world then..."); p. 173 (c18 "The decision once made...")
The Scarlet Letter: What are the three names for which it stands? Why is she forced to wear it? Does it work?
The 3 Scaffold Scenes
Hester
Dimmesdale
Chillingworth
Pearl
Character of Hester:
What are her roots & her first sin? p. 51 (c2 "Be that as it might...");
All sin has some outward manifestation. Why would Hawthorne choose fornication to write about given that notion?
How did Hester sin by choosing to live apart from society? p. 69 (c5, "Hester Prynne, therefore...") see also p. 136 (c13 ¶1)
After fornication, what is her next sin? p. 66 (c4 And she took the oath) & p.84 (c6 "Tell me...")
How does Hester sin twice again? p. 140 (c13 "Much of the marble..." and lines preceeding)
How is Hester partly responsible for Chillingworth's downfall? p. 145 (c14 "The Scarlet Letter burned...") Try to find four reasons.
How does Hester play Eve to Dimmesdale's Adam? p. 167
How free is Hester? She decides to leave. Can she? p. 209 (c22 "During all this time..." Know what predestination means and who the elect are.
As Dimmesdale dies, Hester asks if they will be together for eternity. What is Dimmesdale's answer and why is this true? p. 219-220 (c23 end)
Why does Hester return from Europe to New England? p. 224 (c24 "But there was a more..."
How does the process of sin and redemption somehow ennoble Hester and, by analogy, us? p. 225 (c24 "But there was a more...")
What is symbolic about the way she is buried? (last ¶ of book)
Character of Dimmesdale:
What is the irony & foreshadowing in his speech on p.58 (c3 "Hester Prynne," said he... & following ¶s);
In one sense, being estranged from one's natural environment is a kind of sin. What is Dimmesdale's earliest sin? p. 58 (c3 "The directness of this appeal...")
What are a few of Dimmesdale's outward manifestions of his sin?
A new sin? How does it relate to his sin with Hester? p.105 (c9 "In this manner...")
Why doesn't Dimmesdale confess his sin? Evaluate his answer. p. 113 (c10 "True, there are..." & following ¶s)
Is Chillingworth correct when he speaks of the value of public confession? p. 113 (c10 "These men deceive...)
Yet another sin? p. 123-124 (c11 "More than once...") Is it a sin to loath yourself?
Explain the distinction between penance and penitence on p. 164 (c17 "No, Hester...) (penitence = feeling or expressing sorrow for sins; penance = an act performed to show sorrow for a sin).
Dimmesdale talks of the despair of being alone at the end of c17. What specifically isolates him and prevents him from establishing community? Are they the same things that isolate Hester? What holds the promise of ending the isolation? Why won't it work?
To what condition does Dimmesdale's decision to leave with Hester lead him? c20
How does this new sin differ from his sin of fornication? Which is worse?
What are the double-meanings in Dimmesdale's conversation with Chillingworth on p. 192 (c20 "Yea, to another world...")
Is Dimmesdale's confession a matter of free will or fate or somehow both? p. 216-17 (c23 "It was a ghastly look...")
Character of Chillingworth:
What is the first outward sign of Chillingworth's sin? p. 53 (c3 "From this intense...") see p. 108-9 (c9 "And the Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale..." for the most dramatic outward change)
How is he out of his environment?
What is his earliest sin? p. 65 (c4 "We have wronged each other...")
Did he sin in sending Hester ahead of him to the new world?
Is Chillingworth interested in justice or something else? p. 65 (c4 "Thou wilt not reveal his name?")
How is Chillingworth perverting his God-given skills? p. 99 (c8 "A strange child..." also p. 118 (c10 "A rare case...")
What is the double-meaning of Chillingworth's nickname of "The Leech"?
Was Chillingworth's tormenting of Dimmesdale entirely evil? p. 103 (c9 "Such was the young clergyman's...") & p. 218
Chillingworth blames Hester for turning him into a demon. Evaluate this. p. 148 (c14 "And what am I now...")
Suddenly, Chillingworth blames no one and says it's all fate. Evaluate this. p. 149 (c14 "Peace, Hester, peace...)
Why does Chillingworth choose to follow Dimmesdale & Hester to Europe? Why does he try to prevent Dimmesdale from confessing, and how is that confession a defeat for Chillingworth? p. 216 (c23 "Madman, hold...")
Character of Pearl:
To what does her name refer? p 76 (c6, ¶1)
Why was her nature wild? p. 77 (c6, "This outward mutability...")
The Scarlet Letter typifies (is a type/symbol of) the sin of adultery; Pearl somehow typifies the Scarlet Letter. How? p. 87 (c7 "But it was...")
Pearl has the "freedom of a broken law" p. 114 (c10 "None&endash;save the freedom...") Explain. Do you know people who are free because they are outside the law somehow?
What happens to Pearl's nature in the forest scene of chapter 16? Does she grow more or less wild?
In c19, why doesn't Pearl return to her mother? Why won't she give her mother the Scarlet Letter but insist that she pick it up?
How does Dimmesdale's confession bring Pearl back into the fold of humanity and tame her wild nature? p. 219 (c23 "Pearl kissed his lips...") How is this a kind of ironic fairy tale?
Good & Evil intermixed:
p. 49 (c2 "Had there been...");
p. 66 (c4 "Thy acts are like mercy...")
p. 74 (c5 "Her imagination...")
p. 108 (c9 "And the Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale...")
p. 174 (c18 "The stigma gone...")
The Black Man of the Forest: p. 207 (c22 "Fie, woman, fie...")