The Scarlet Letter Test Flashcards
The novel begins where? What is the significance of this place?
Begins outside the Salem Jail
-The first things built by the Puritan’s
What is the symbol of the rosebush related to?
Passion
What is Hester’s punishment to be?
She is to stand upon the scaffold in town along with her child while wearing a scarlet letter A upon her clothing
Hester is shocked to discover who in town her first day on the scaffold?
Her husband
What does Chillingworth vow to do? How does he plan to do this?
He vows to find out who the child’s father is
Looking into the mans heart
What are the many symbols of the Scarlet Letter?
Adultery
Able
Angel
Charity and Helpfulness
What is Pearl’s function in the novel? How does Hawthorne reveal this?
She is the living Scarlet Letter
Sufferning to her mother
What point does Hawthorne try to make with the Pearl’s name?
Hester is paying a high cost for having Pearl
Why is Hester’s housing choice symbolic?
Border between puritan and morals-immorality of the woods
Why is Chillingworth referred to as a leech? 2 reasons
He is physician who at the time were still known to use leeches
He is living off of Dimmesdale and will eventually suck the life out of him
What is the turning point for Chillingworth? How does he change? Give some evidence of this
When He thinks he sees the A on Dimmesdale
He is evil
He starts being undercover-the Black Man
How does the trip to the governor’s mansion further the idea of Pearl as the scarlet letter?
Dressed in a scarlet red dress
What is the importance of Mistress Hibbins in the final few chapters of the novel?
She connects all who are sinners
How does Pearl connect her parents while playing in the graveyard?
Throws Sticky burs at them
How does Dimmesdale attempt to cope with his guilty conscious?
Fasting, beating himself-his physical punishment
When does the reader become aware that Chillingworth is powerless as to the outcome of the novel?
When the A crosses the sky when the governor dies
When confronted by Pearl about the scarlet letter what transpires? Why is it significant?
Hester lies. she has never lied about the A before
What is important about the sunshine that Pearl plays in, in the Forrest?
She can get in and Hester can’t.
Shows that Hester has slipped away
What causes the death of Dimmesdale, Chillingworth,and Hester?
Guilt-Dimmesdale
Nothing to live for-Chillingworth
Old Age-Hester
What are the circumstances surrounding Dimmesdale’s death?
Confesses, he admits he sins, the town does not believe him
What becomes of Pearl?
She grows up and move to England and gets all of Chillingworth’s money
Quaff
To drink
Scruple
An ethical consideration or principle that inhabits action
Berth
Safe Distance
Clarion
A medieval trumpet with clear shrill tones
Pathos
An emotion of sympathetic pity
What are the women in the courtyard upset about?
they don’t approve Hester’s punishment
What changes follow the meeting of Hester and Dimmesdale in the woods for Hester, DImeesdale, and Pearl?
Hester goes back to being passion
Dimmesdale changes
Pearl begins to accept her father
What the plan for escaping from New England?How is it foiled?
to pay sailors
Chillingworth ended up being on the boat too
Explain the significance of Pearls name.
She was of high cost
Why does Hester appeal to Dimmesdale? What are some things that this encounter causes?
Hester asks him to please let her keep Pearl
The connection between Hester and Dimmesdale
What does Pearl point out about the suffering of Hester and Dimmesdale?
Hester is internal and Dimmesdale is external
What are some of the changes that occur in Hester as she moves from passionate to logical thinker?
Stops acting on her feelings
A means Able
She prepares to challenge Chillingworth
Lore
Something that is taught;a lesson
Intimations
The act of making known
Portent
something that foreshadows a coming event;omen
Sable
The color black
Gules
The heraldic color red
