The Forest Scene
Chapter 16 : “A Forest Walk”
Chapter 17 : “The Pastor and his Parishioner”
Chapter 18 : “A Flood of Sunshine”
Chapter 19 : “The Child at the Brookside”
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Chapter 16: A Forest Walk
• Hester chooses to talk to
Dimmesdale in the
•
forest.
• She couldn’t think of
any “narrower privacy •
than beneath the open
sky” = IRONY
• It is ironic that they
find privacy in the most
open of spaces.
SYMBOLISM
The footpath leading into
the forest is symbolic of
Hester’s moral wilderness
The footpath travels into the
mystery of the forest, so
overgrown with trees,
nearly impossible for light
to break through.
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THE SUNSHINE
Personification
Symbolism
Pearl points out to
This symbolizes
Hester that the
Pearl’s innocence and
sunshine runs away
Hester’s sin.
from her mother but
not from her; Pearl says
it is because of the “A”
on Hester’s bosom.
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4
Symbolism and Personification of: The Brook
Listening Activity: Listen to page 194.
Write down all imagery (descriptive
language) that personifies the brook.
Reading Comprehension and
Paraphrasing: Read the passage about
Pearl and Nature from this link and
explain how Pearl is compared to the
brook.
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NATURE IMAGERY: THE BROOK
Personification
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sad
Melancholy
Sorrow
Sighing and murmuring
Babbling
Gloomy
Lively
Voice of a young child
Witnessed a sad event
Symbolism
• The brook is symbolic of
Pearl.
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NATURE IMAGERY: THE BROOK
Pearl is compared to the brook because. . .
they are both childlike yet witnessed deep
secrets. They are both sad because of the
childhood they lost due to secrets and sin.
Again, Pearl is symbolically connected with an
object from nature to show her connection to
the wild and the free.
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Symbolism: The Black Man and his Book
• Pearl heard that the devil walks around with a book
in which people sign away their souls.
• Pearl asks Hester if Hester has ever met the Black
Man, and Hester answers that she did once—and the
scarlet letter is his mark
• Pearl also questions whether Dimmesdale has met the
Black Man, and if that is the reason why he always
covers his heart with hand.
• The black man and the book SYMBOLIZE the sinful
choices people make. Hester did not actually meet the
devil, but she did choose to sin.
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Characterization
Dimmesdale
• As he walks along the forest
path he thinks no one can
see him so he does not hide
his true self.
• He looked “haggard and
feeble” and had a
“listlessness in his gait”
(196).
• Hester sends Pearl off to play
in the forest as Dimmesdale
approaches.
Pearl
• She is devilishly happy and
does what she wants; she
does not seem to be afraid
of anything.
• Pearl is happiest in the
forest; she feels welcomed
and loved by the animals
and plants of the forest.
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Chapter 17: “The Pastor and His Parishioner”
• Dimmesdale tells Hester he
has been miserable for
seven years.
• They are awkward together
at first.
• Hester tells Dimmesdale
that Chillingworth is really
her husband. This makes
Dimmesdale furious. Does
he has a right to be?
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•Dimmesdale eventually forgives Hester for keeping it a
secret, understanding why.
•Dimmesdale tells Hester that Chillingworth is a bigger
sinner than they are because Chillingworth’s crime is
premeditated, whereas Hester and Dimmesdale committed
their crime never meaning to hurt anyone.
•Dimmesdale is afraid Chillingworth will tell the entire
town he is Hester’s husband and that Dimmesdale is
Pearl’s father, but Hester assures him that Chillingworth
would not do so because he is only seeking revenge against
Dimmesdale
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Creation of MOOD
The mood that is created on the first two
and eerie
pages of this chapter is dreary
____________.
Hawthorne uses words like
chill
ghost
________________,
_______________,
and
______________
in order to set this mood
cold
(197-198).
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Dimmesdale’s Hypocrisy
. Explain the quotation, “What can a ruined
soul, like mine, effect towards the redemption
of other souls?” (199).
Hester tells Dimmesdale that he should find peace
in the way that his parishioners worship him, but
Dimmesdale thinks that he can not help others
find redemption from sin when his own soul has
been destroyed by his sin.
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Hester’s Inner Peace
Why does Hester’s ‘A’ bring her peace while
Dimmesdale’s brings him pain?
Quotation: “Happy are you, Hester, that wear
the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom!
Mine burns in secret!”
Explanation: Hester does not have the burden
of hiding sin.
Who in modern society have we forgiven for
his/her sins?
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The Worse of the Sins
• Hester confesses to Dimmesdale that Chillingworth is her
husband. He is, at first, irate, but then he forgives her.
• According to Arthur Dimmesdale, whose sin is greater and
why?
Quotation: “That old man’s revenge has been blacker than
my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a
human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!” (203).
• Explanation: Chillingworth’s sin of revenge is worse
because he intentionally sought to hurt another person.
Hester and Dimmesdale did not hurt anyone.
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IRONY
• Dimmesdale is too weak (both physically and
emotionally) to come up with a solution.
• He once again relies upon Hester to be the strong
one.
• Women were never considered the strong or smart
ones, however, Hester has been strong and smart
since the opening scaffold scene.
• The Scarlet Letter has allowed Hester to think
outside of Puritan Law.
• Hester presents two solutions:
1. go off into the forest and away from Boston
2. get on a boat, go to Europe, change his name and
start a new life
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Chapter 18: A Flood of Sunshine
•
•
•
•
The cowardly and weakly
Dimmesdale is afraid to start anew
ALONE!
Hester, still in love with the cowardly
minister—a leader in his community,
a “godly” and highly revered man—
decides she and Pearl will go with
him.
Hester believes they have more than
paid for their sin and deserve to start
over.
Dimmesdale believes he will pay for
his sins when he dies anyway,
therefore he will live the remainder
of his life with Hester and Pearl in
happiness.
•
•
•
•
Hester unclasps the scarlet letter
from her bosom and threw it into
the distance
Her beauty came back through the
“magic” (romanticism) of the past
hour
Does she regret what she did? Has
she ever demonstrated remorse in
any way? Why does she love
Dimmesdale so much?
In the last scene of the chapter,
Pearl is described to be in one with
nature.
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What effect does their decision have on:
Dimmesdale
• Quotation: “‘Do I feel joy
again?’ cried he, wondering
at himself … ‘This is
already the better life!’”
(211).
• Explanation: Dimmesdale
feels joy for the first time in
seven years.
Hester
• Quotation: “Oh, exquisite
relief! She had not know
the weight, until she felt
the freedom!”
• Explanation: The idea of
being free of the scarlet
letter is like a heavy
weight off of Hester.
18
Describe Hester once she removes her cap and
‘A’. How does the mood change?
Hester removes her Puritan Cap and the
Scarlet Letter. It lands next to the brook.
Symbolically, she is removing the
constraints of Puritan Law and society. The
sunlight bursts through the trees and
shines upon her hair. Hester is once again
beautiful
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Foreshadowing
The letter does not land in
the water; it does not get
carried away,
foreshadowing they will
never get rid of the ‘A.’
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What is symbolic about the brook in this chapter?
Why does the scarlet letter land near it?
The brook represents the divide between
Hester and Dimmesdale’s world of secrecy
and Pearl’s world of truth. The scarlet letter
creates that divide.
22
Sketch a picture of Pearl on these last pages of the chapter.
Pearl had not found the hour pass wearisomely, while her mother sat talking with the clergyman.
The great
—stern as it showed itself to those who brought the guilt and troubles of the world into its bosom
black forest
—
became the playmate of the lonely infant, as well as it knew how. Sombre as it was, it
put on the kindest of its moods to welcome her.
It offered her the partridge-berries,
the growth of the preceding autumn, but ripening only in the spring, and now red as drops of blood upon the
withered leaves.
These Pearl gathered, and was pleased with their wild
The small denizens of the wilderness hardly took pains to move out of her path. A
partridge,
indeed, with a brood of ten behind her, ran forward threateningly, but soon
repented of her fierceness, and clucked to her young ones not to be afraid. A
pigeon, alone on a low branch, allowed Pearl to come beneath, and uttered a
sound as much of greeting as alarm. A squirrel, from the lofty depths of his
domestic tree, chattered either in anger or merriment,—for a squirrel is such a
choleric and humorous little personage, that it is hard to distinguish between his
moods,—so he chattered at the child, and flung down a nut upon her head. It was
a last year's nut, and already gnawed by his sharp tooth. A fox, startled from his
sleep by her light footstep on the leaves, looked inquisitively at Pearl, as doubting
whether it were better to steal off, or renew his nap on the same spot. A wolf, it is
said,—but here the tale has surely lapsed into the improbable,—came up, and
smelt of Pearl's robe, and offered his savage head to be patted by her hand. The
truth seems to be, however, that the mother-forest, and these wild things which it
nourished, all recognized a kindred wildness in the human child.
flavor.
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•
And she was gentler here than in the grassy-margined
streets of the settlement, or in her mother's cottage. The
flowers appeared to know it; and one and another
whispered as she passed, “Adorn thyself with me, thou
beautiful child, adorn thyself with me!”—and, to please
them, Pearl gathered the violets, and
anemones, and columbines, and some
twigs of the freshest green, which the
old trees held down before her eyes.
With these she decorated her hair, and
her young waist, and became a nymphchild, or an infant dryad, or whatever
else was in closest sympathy with the
antique wood. In such guise had Pearl adorned
herself, when she heard her mother's voice, and came
slowly back.
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Chapter 19: The Child at the Brookside
• Dimmesdale admits children do not usually like him
• He admits to have shrunken away from Pearl in the
past because of how much they resemble each other.
• Pearl is one side of the brook, her parents are on the
other
• Pearl is the Scarlet Letter, when she sees the Letter
tossed aside, she feels tossed aside.
• She has never seen her mother without the ‘A’ – Hester
is the ‘A’ – she cannot escape it.
• Pearl refuses to cross to the other side of the brook
until Hester puts the ‘A’ back on.
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26
• Hester puts the Puritan cap and the Scarlet
Letter back on to stop Pearl’s temper tantrum.
• Pearl crosses the brook and joins her parents.
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SYMBOLISM
• Dimmesdale kisses Pearl on the forehead
• She runs to the brook and washes the kiss off.
• The kiss is symbolically carried away by the
brook.
•
(Donna’s poem)
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Reestablishment of Mood
• And now this fateful interview had come to a
close. The dell was to be left a solitude among its
dark, old trees, which, with their multitudinous
tongues, would whisper long of what had passed
there, and no mortal be the wiser. And the
melancholy brook would add this other tale to
the mystery with which its little heart was
already overburdened, and whereof it still kept
up a murmuring babble, with not a whit more
cheerfulness of tone than for ages heretofore.
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