Scarlet Letter test Flashcards
List the 5 major themes
1) psychological effects of sin
2) the individual’s place in the chain of mankind
3) the individual in Puritan society
4) self-examination and self-knowledge
5) hypocrisy
character’s name that means star
Hester
character’s name that means spearman
Roger Chillingworth
What does the sunshine symbolize?
gutless happiness (shines on innocent Pearl, shuns from Hester) -daytime is restriction/exposure, night is freedom/darkness and concealment
What does the scaffold symbolize?
- connection of Pearl, Hester, and Arthur
- public punishment/judgment
- hypocrisy
- salvation of sin and guilt (freedom, truth exposed)
- Roger’s weakness (his kryptonite)
What does the prison door symbolize?
- strict, condemning Puritan society
- black or white (you’ve sinned or you haven’t)
- darkness and pain
What does the wild rose bush symbolize?
- Hester: flourishing in a society where she shouldn’t be, survival and hope
- Pearl: has thorns but a beautiful flower, plucked from the rose bush
What does the forest symbolize?
- moral wilderness (where Puritan law doesn’t exist, governed by the natural law)
- safe haven (for Hester and Arthur)
- freedom (Pearl can play)
- temptations/hiding place (Mistress Hibbins)
What does the brooke symbolize?
- boundary between 2 worlds (reality vs. fantasy)
- pearl’s mysterious beginnings (perceptive…foreshadows the end won’t be happy)
- tale of sorrow, innocence to reality
What does minor character Mistress Hibbing symbolize?
She’s the governor’s sister
- temptations, witch-craft, secrecy
- preceptive, foreshadowing
- someone who exploits weakness in others
- least hypocritical
- the town’s hypocrisy: everyone knows she’s a witch, don’t do anything because she’s the gov’s sis
What do Reverend Wilson and Governor Bellingham symbolize?
- theocracy coin: Wilson is church, Bellingham is state
- have connection w/the scaffold (hypocrisy and judgment)
Who is the “Blackman” of the forest?
the devil
View of sin—> Hester
reality of sin
- how much sin can take the life/passion out of someone
- sin is painful at first, can learn about yourself
- salvation through truth: open about her sin, not consumed by it & able to triumph
View of sin—> Pearl
living Scarlet Letter (reminder of sin)
- elicit union btw her parents
- insists on public recognition of their family
View of sin—> Arthur
hypocrisy of sin/struggle of a cowardly heart toward a public confession of truth
