The Scarlet Letter
Name ______________________________
Chapters 17 and 18 Analysis Questions
Date _______________________________
AP English Language and Composition
Period __________
Chapter 17
1.
What do the setting and Hester’s attire in paragraph 4, which begins “Gathering himself quickly up,”
add to the initial mood of this chapter? When answering this question, make sure to provide specific
textual evidence.
2.
What type of comparison is being made in paragraph 8, which begins “It was no wonder”? How is this
comparison being done? Why is it being done?
3.
How do paragraphs 16-18, which begin “More misery, Hester,” reinforce Arthur’s feelings about
hypocrisy and himself? Provide specific textual evidence in your answer.
4.
What is revealed about Hester in paragraph 24, which begins “Such was the ruin”? Provide specific
textual evidence in your answer.
5.
Summarize the various stages of Arthur’s reaction to Hester’s confession that Roger Chillingworth was
her husband as described throughout paragraphs 26-31, which begin “The minister looked at her.”
6.
What literary tools are being used in the following quote from paragraph 34, which begins “They sat
down again”?
“The forest was obscure around them, and creaked with a blast that was passing through it. The
boughs were tossing heavily above their heads; while one solemn old tree groaned dolefully to
another, as if telling the sad story of the pair that sat beneath, or constrained to forebode evil to
come.”
How and why are they being used?
7.
Explain your reaction to Arthur’s pleas with Hester to think for him, to be strong for him, and to advise
him what to do throughout this chapter. Do your best to explain not only how you reacted but also why
you reacted in this way.
8.
What options does Hester provide Arthur in order to “Preach! Write! Act! Do anything, save to lie down
and die!” in the latter section of the chapter?
9.
Explain the importance of the final line of Chapter 17, “Then, all was spoken!”
Chapter 18
10.
Explain your understanding of the title of Chapter 18, “A Flood of Sunshine.” Make sure to provide
textual evidence to support your opinion.
11.
In paragraph 2, the narrator says that Hester “had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral
wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of which they were
now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate.” What is this “moral wilderness”? Provide
specific examples of ways in which Hester wanders through it in the novel.
12.
Describe the transformations that both Arthur and Hester seem to undergo in this chapter?
13.
The brook running throughout the forest has been described several times during the last couple of
chapters. In this chapter, it states that “The course of the little brook might be traced by its merry gleam
afar into the wood’s heart of mystery, which had become a mystery of joy.” Whom does this brook
symbolize? What does the quote above seem to mean? Why? How does it tie into the bigger concept
of nature vs. man-made law? As always, provide specific textual evidence in your answer.
14.
List the ways in which the forest “put on the kindest of is moods to welcome” Pearl in this chapter.
15.
Explain the irony of the last line of the chapter, “Slowly; for she saw the clergyman!”