12. Analysis and Focus: Chapter 1-4
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Introduce the reader to Hester Prynne and begin to explore the theme of
sin, along with its connection to knowledge and social order.
Use of symbols, as well as their depiction of the political reality of Hester
Prynneโs world, testify to the contradictions inherent in Puritan society.
Puritan belief: the belief that sin not only permeates our world but that it should
be actively sought out and exposed so that it can be punished publicly.
Hester becomes a scapegoat, and the public nature of her punishment makes
her an object for voyeuristic contemplation.
the rosebush and Hester resist the kinds of fixed interpretation that the narrator
associates with religion.
figure of Hester offer various options for interpretation: she cannot be defined
solely in terms of a single action, in terms of her great โsin.โ
The town has made Hester into a โliving sermon,โ as Chillingworth puts
it, because she is stripped of her humanity and made to serve the needs of the
community. Her punishment is expressed in violent terms.
Characters
of
Main
Characters:
Hester, Chillingworth, Dimmesdale, judges, people of Salem.
Contrast and parallel between two men: Chillingworth vs. Dimmesdale
22. Analysis and Focus: Chapter 5-10
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Chapter 5-6: Hester์ Pearl์ ์ถ์ฅ ์ดํ ์ถ์ ๋ํ ๋ฌธ์ , ์ฒญ๊ต๋ ์ฌํ์ ์ธ
์๊ณผ ํธ๊ฒฌ, ๊ทธ๋ฆฌ๊ณ ๊ทธ๋ ์ ๋ฐ์ฑ๊ณผ ์์ธ๊ฐ, ๋ธ Pearl ์ ์ฑ์ ์ ๋ํ ์๊ฐ์์
๊ทธ ์์ด๊ฐ ๊ฐ์ง ๋ชจ์ต์ด ๊ณผ์ฐ ์ด๋ค ๋ฐํฅ์ ๋ถ๋ฌ์ผ์ผํฌ ๊ฒ์ธ๊ฐ์ ๋ํ ๋ถ์.
Why didnโt Hester leave from the town to new land or to Europe? For the
sense of inconvenience? For repentance or self-reflection? Resistance?
Or for self determination?(์์ฌ์? ๋ฐ์ฑ ํน์ ์ฐธํ? ์ ํญ?ํน์ ์๊ธฐ ๊ฒฐ์
๊ถ?)
Various meaning of Pearl: shame vs. treasure / consolation vs.
punishment / warning for transgression of alienation vs. feelings of exile.
But what Pearl gives is, parodoxically, out of sin comes treasure..meaning
of Hesterโs needlework: shame to beauty.
The letter A: mixture of contempt and of strange enchantment.
Hester frequently uses Pearl as a mirror, watching her own reflec-tion in
the childโs eyes.
Hesterโs cottage near the end of forest symbolizes of romance and
supernatural, the unrealistic, or the magical in order to explore alternatives to
the โrealityโ of human existence and humanness against Puritan society.
59. The Scarlet Letter โ Trivia Questions for comprehension
1. In what century is the story of Hester Prynne set?
(A) The 16th century (B) The 17th century (C) The 18th century (D) The 19th century
2. What is the occupation of the narrator of this story?
(A) Attorney (B) Minister (C) Land surveyor (D) Customs officer
3. Where do Hester and Chillingworth live before coming to America?
(A) Amsterdam (B) Paris (C) Edinburgh (D) Jamaica
4. With whom has Chillingworth been living before he appears in Boston?
(A) Another band of Puritans (B) Native Americans
(C) Spanish settlers in Florida (D) Canadian fur trappers
5. What is situated immediately outside the door of the prison in which Hester is kept?
(A) A rosebush (B) A pine tree (C) A gallows (D) A graveyard
6. What item in the governorโs mansion shows Hester a distorted reflection of herself?
(A) An antique mirror (B) A suit of armor
(C) A stained-glass window (D) The governorโs eyeglasses
7. Which of the following is a method Dimmesdale uses to punish himself for his sins?
(A) Scourging or whipping (B) Fasting
(C) Vigils (extended periods of wakefulness and/or prayer)
(D) All of the above
60. The Scarlet Letter โ Trivia Questions for comprehension
8. In what city do Hester and Pearl live?
(A) Salem (B) Providence (C) Boston (D) Hartford
9. Who is Mistress Hibbins?
(A) The governorโs sister (B) Hesterโs mother
(C) Dimmesdaleโs aunt (D) Chillingworthโs 2nd wife
10. How does Mistress Hibbins eventually die?
(A) She is strangled by Chillingworth. (B) She wastes away in a diphtheria epidemic.
(C) She is executed publicly as a witch. (D) Pearl puts a hex on her.
11. How does Hester support herself financially?
A) As a prostitute (B) As a seamstress (C) As a nurse (D) As a farmhand
12. Next to whom is Hester buried?
(A) Dimmesdale (B) Chillingworth (C) Pearl (D) No one; her body is burned.
13. What natural phenomenon comes to symbolize both Dimmesdaleโs โsinโ and Governor
Winthropโs โvirtueโ? (A) A lightning bolt (B) A meteor (C) A forest fire (D) A flood
14. Why does Pearl not recognize her mother when she sees her with Dimmesdale in the forest?
(A) Hester has removed the scarlet letter. (B)Hester has removed her cap to expose her long hair.
(C) Hester is not wearing her usual plain gray dress.
(D)Mistress Hibbins has cast a spell on Hester, changing her appearance.
61. The Scarlet Letter โ Trivia Questions for comprehension
15. How does Pearl acknowledge Dimmesdale as her father at his death?
(A) By calling him โfatherโ (B) By interrupting his sermon
(C) By kissing him (D) By announcing that she has seen him with her mother
16. What mark can supposedly be seen on Dimmesdaleโs chest?
(A) A scarlet letter โAโ (B) A tattoo (C) The mark of the devil (D) A red rose
17. How do Hester and Dimmesdale plan to escape their suffering?
(A) By going to live with the Native Americans (B) By boarding a ship bound for Europe
(C) By killing Chillingworth (D) By committing suicide
18. How does Pearl become wealthy?
(A) She discovers piratesโ treasure. (B) She marries the governorโs son.
(C) She inherits Chillingworthโs estate and marries a nobleman.
(D) She becomes a famous actress and dancer.
19. Where does the narrator first encounter Hester Prynneโs story?
(A) He finds a manuscript in the attic of the Salem Custom-House.
(B) He hears it from an elderly aunt.
(C) He hears it from one of the old men who work at the Salem Custom-House.
(D) It comes to him in a dream.
62. The Scarlet Letter โ Trivia Questions for comprehension
20. What item of clothing does Hester make for Governor Winthrop?
(A) A cloak for his swearing-in (B) A nightcap (C) A pair of gloves (D) A winter hat
21. What color of clothing does Hester always wear?
(A) Scarlet (B) White (C) Black (D) Gray
22. Where do Hester and Pearl live?
(A) In the poorhouse (B) In an abandoned cottage on the outskirts of Boston
(C) In the forest (D) In the house of Roger Chillingworth
23. What does Chillingworth pretend to be?
(A) A minister (B) A doctor (C) A madman (D) A scholar
24. What does Hesterโs letter โAโ eventually come to represent to the townspeople?
(A) โAbleโ (B) โAloneโ (C) โAvariciousโ (D) โAbsolutely Admirableโ
25. Why does the narrator lose his job in the customhouse?
(A) He is incompetent. (B) He spends too much time writing when he should be working.
(C) The other inspectors dislike him personally.
(D) A new customhouse president, who is of a different party than the narrator, is elected.
63. The Scarlet Letter โ Trivia Questions for comprehension
1: Hawthorne supposedly found the parchment sheets that contained the historical manuscript
on which the novel is based in
a. a shoebox under his bed.
b. a file cabinet at the Essex Historical Society.
c., the faded scarlet A in the Salem Custom House d. a box filled with his father's papers.
2: Hawthorne suggests that the wild rosebush that grows outside the prison door is a symbol of
a. virginity. b. the loss of true love. c. natural, untamed beauty. d. the thorny road of life.
3: What does the scarlet letter look like?
a. Very plain and severe, like most Puritan decorations
b. Artistically done, with elaborate embroidery and flourishes of gold thread
c. A plain A, twined with a thorny rosebush
d. Small and understated, so that it blends into Hester's dress
4: Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth, is
a. much younger than she is. c. much older than she is
b. her soul mate.
d. the minister of the town of Salem.
5: By punishing Hester with the scarlet letter, the Puritan community is
a. being reasonable about their justice.
c. proclaiming its own smug self-righteousness.
b. following the principles of religious forgivenessd. promising redemption at her death.
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64. The Scarlet Letter โ Trivia Questions for comprehension
6: Two symbolic images of the good and evil battling over Dimmesdale's soul are
a. Pearl and Hester b. Chillingworth and Pearl. c. Chillingworth and Mistress Hibbins
d. the immense red A that appears in the sky as Dimmesdale performs a silent vigil on the scaffold
and the scarlet letter A that Hester wears.
7: When asked who created her, Pearl says it was
a. God. b. her parents. c. the wild rosebush outside the prison door. d. the Lord of Misrule.
8: As time goes by, Hester's scarlet letter comes to stand for
a. amends. b. articulate.
c. able.
d. angel.
9: Chillingworth became the greatest sinner in violating the human heart because he
a. felt the church should have avenged him.. b. single-mindedly was bent on personal revenge.
c. neglected his young wife d. consistently acted with indifference toward everyone around him.
10: Hester tells Dimmesdale in the forest that humans have a right to be happy and that
a. the love she shared with him was sacred. b. prayer could bring about their atonement.
c. the Puritan community had no right to tell them what to do.
d. their behavior could be judged only by God.
65. The Scarlet Letter โ Trivia Questions for comprehension
11: After she is released from prison, Hester remains in Boston because
a. the townspeople won't let her go.
b. she and Pearl's father can live together, giving Pearl a more stable lifestyle.
c. she has neither money nor friends to support herself if she moves.
d. every other place on earth would feel foreign to her, so she is bound, psychologically, to stay.
12: To support herself and Pearl, Hester sells needlework for all public ceremonies except
a. weddings. b. funerals. c. ordinations of new ministers. d. baptisms.
13: Following an impressive meteor shower, the people of Boston see a symbol in the sky: a huge letter A.
They interpret this A as standing for
a. adultery. b. able. c. angel. d. Arthur (as in Arthur Dimmesdale).
14: Hester decides to reveal Chillingworth's true identity to Dimmesdale because
a. she realizes that Chillingworth is literally killing Dimmesdale.
b. she wants to hurt Dimmesdale by revealing her love for Chillingworth.
c. she wants Pearl to meet her real father.
d. otherwise Chillingworth will reveal the secret himself.
15: Hester explains the scarlet letter to Pearl by saying it is
a. a symbol of her membership in a secret society of women.
b. a family heirloom, given to her by her grandmother.
c. a sample of her craftsmanship. d. a mark left from her one meeting with the Black Man.
66. The Scarlet Letter : Themes, Motifs and Symbols
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Sin, Knowledge, and the Human Condition
The Nature of Evil : Ambivalent Aspects of Sin and Evil โ focus by what?
Identity and Society : Human in Nature vs. Human in Society
Civilization Vs. the Wilderness
Night Vs. Day
Evocative Names
Knowledge and social order
Depiction of the political reality and contradictions inherent in Puritan
Society
Aspects of American Puritan society
Punishment, Prejudice and Alienation of Hester
Hesterโs Conflict between her natural identity and social position
Various Roles of Pearl: Shame vs. Treasure, Consolation vs. Punishment,
Warning for transgression of alienation vs. feelings of exile, savior vs.
demon, etc.
67. The Scarlet Letter : Themes, Motifs and Symbols
๏ผ Changes
of
meaning
for
โthe
Letter
Aโ:
Adultery, Able, Angel, Adolescence, Ambivalence, America, Alienation,
etc.
๏ผ Social (Political or Religious) order vs. Natural order
๏ผ Ambivalence in Early American Society
๏ผ Spiritual (Dimmesdale) vs. Scientific (Chillingworth)
๏ผ Confession, Redemption, and the notion of โburyingโ oneโs secrets by
Dim.
๏ผ Inner Conflict for Dimmesdale vs. Outer punishment for Hester
๏ผ Self-justification of Three Protagonists: Who is the most responsible for
the events of this novel?
๏ผ The Scarlet Letter as a Romance: Is it possible or impossible?
๏ผ The Scarlet Letter as a social protest novel? Is there any possibility?
๏ผ What is the focal point that Hawthorne wants to describe for
American, or universe?