1. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Photo of Old State House, 1870, from the Bostonian Society

2. What were the two purposes of Hawthorne’s essay “The Custom- House”? Depict his enemies as idiots Be the prologue for The Scarlet Letter

3. The Scarlet Letter is America’s first… True psychological novel

4. Describe Hester Prynne. Beautiful Loving Loyal to love True to herself

5. Describe Roger Chillingworth. Hester’s husband Sends her ahead to the New World Motivated by revenge Using a fake name

6. Describe Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester’s lover Loving Guilt-ridden Eventually finds courage to stand up for love

7. Describe Pearl. Hester & Dimmesdale’s daughter Name shows her as symbol of overcoming adversity

8. What is Hester’s crime? adultery

9. What is Hester’s punishment (three parts)? Jail time Stand on scaffold for a day Wear scarlet (red) “A” on chest for ever

10. Who advocated mercy for Hester? Dimmesdale

11. Why hasn’t Hester seen her husband in a long time? Two years ago, he sent her alone to the new world

12. Explain the symbol of the rosebush outside the prison. The beautiful rosebush outside the ugly prison, a place of pain, symbolizes Hester who is a bit of goodness and beauty in this bleak Puritan society.

13. How do people treat Hester after her release from prison? They won’t talk to her They still buy her beautiful embroidered items. Photo by Aimee RayAimee Ray

14. What does Chillingworth want? To find out the name of Hester’s lover To get revenge on Hester’s lover

15. What do Hester and Dimmesdale plan to do? How does Chillingworth try to ruin their plans? They are going to take a boat to England. Chillingworth books passage on the same boat.

16. What is Dimmesdale’s triumph? He delivers the greatest sermon of his life He reveals that he was Hester’s lover He shows his self-injury to the crowd

17. What happens to Chillingworth after the big revelation? He dies within the year

18. How does Hester redeem herself and change the symbolism of the scarlet “A” she has worn? She nurses the sick and helps the needy She is always accepting of everyone The “A” comes to be a symbol of mercy

19. Explain the difference between sins of passion and sins of principle. A sin of passion comes from strong feelings, like love A sin of principle is a coldly calculated violation of someone else’s soul

20. What is a “romance” and how is it different from a novel? A romance is a prose narrative that deals with its subjects and characters in a symbolic, imaginative and non-realistic way A novel is realistic; a romance is not