CHAPTER 11 Vocabulary
MALICE: desire to see another suffer.
LATENT: dormant.
BALKED: refuse to proceed.
ODIOUS: disgusting.
MACHINATION: an evil scheme.
LORE: traditional knowledge or belief.
ETHEREALIZED: celestially.
ATTESTATION: proof.
AVOWAL: an open declaration or acknowledgment.
IMPALPABLE incapable of being felt by touch.
Chapter 11 Questions
What effect does Reverend Dimmesdale’s guilt have upon his popularity in the colony?
What practices does Dimmesdale begin as a result of his guilt?
Chapter 12 Vocabulary
SOMNAMBULISM: sleepwalking.
DANK: cold and damp.
EXPIATION: to atone for.
DEFUNCT: dead or inactive.
SCANTLY: scarcely enough.
ARCHFIEND: Satan.
SCURRILOUS: offensively abusive.
GRISLY: inspiring horror or intense fear.
AWRY: out of hoped-for cause.
FIRMAMENT: the heavens.
MALEVOLENCE: intense hatred
REPLETE: complete.
Chapter 12 Questions
What is a vigil? And where does Dimmesdale hold his?
Why are Hester and Pearl out at midnight ?
What promise does Dimmesdale refuse to make to Pearl ?
What is miraculous about the meteor?
Quote a line that shows Chillingworth as a symbol of evil.
Chapter 13 Vocabulary
PAUPER: a very poor person.
GIBE: to taunt.
DESPOTS: tyrants
FOLIAGE: a cluster of leaves, flowers, and branches.
SEMBLANCE: appearance.
IMBIBED: remembered
ETHEREAL: celestial, heavenly.
CHASM: a separation,
LUNACY: wild foolishness; insanity.
ACQUIESCING: passively
Chapter 13 Questions
How old is Pearl in this chapter?
How has the townspeople’s view changed toward Hester?
How has Hester’s appearance changed?
How has Hester’s attitude changed?
What does Hester resolve to do?
Chapter 14 Vocabulary
WIRY: lean and strong.
BEHEST: an earnest request.
RANKLE: to cause persistent or bitter resentment.
PROPINQUITY: nearness in place or time.
USURP: to seize and hold by force or
RETRIBUTION: punishment given in return for some wrong committed; judgment.
Chapter 14 Questions
How has Roger Chillingworth changed in the past 7 years?
Quote at least one line that directly associates Chillingworth with the devil. Cite the page.
What does Hester want Chillingworth to do?
What revelation is she going to make to Reverend Dimmesdale?
What effect has Chillingworth had on Dimmesdale? Quote a line to support your answer.
Chapter 15 Vocabulary
SERE: withered.
VERDURE: health and vigor.
SEDULOUS: diligent
PETULANT: insolent or rude
PRECOCITY: exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age.
ACRID: deeply or violently bitter.
ENIGMA: mystery.
PROPENSITY: an intense and often urgent natural inclination.
VIVACITY: being lively in temper or conduct: sprightly.
ASPERITY: roughness of manner or of temper: harshness.
UPBRAIDED: criticized.
Chapter 15 Questions
Read Hester’s description of Chillingworth carefully. How does she feel about him?
What questions does Pearl ask her mother? Why does this trouble Hester?
Chapter 16 Vocabulary
Scintillating: Dazzling
Eddies: Water circles
Loquacity: Wordy, Talkative
Lamentation: Grieving and weeping
Repining: Complaining
Vivacious: Lively
Chapter 16 Questions
Where does Hester plan to meet Dimmesdale? Why?
Describe the scene with Hester and Pearl in the sunlight. What symbolic meaning could the
sunlight have? Why does the sunlight shine on Pearl and not on Hester?
What story has Pearl heard about the “black man”?
What does Hester mean when she says, “Once in my life, I met the Black Man. This scarlet
letter is his mark.”
Why does Pearl think the minister holds his hand over his heart? How is there symbolic
truth in what she says?
Chapter 17 Vocabulary
Redemption: forgiveness
Pentecost: Holiday before Easter
Penance: Acts of contrition
Penitence: Suffering for sin
Malevolent: Evil
Contiguity: Closeness
Misanthropy: Dislike of people
Consecration: Set apart for holiness
Satiating: Satisfying
Chapter 17 Questions
How has Dimmesdale’s secret sin affected his life? Use a quote to support your answer.
What is Dimmesdale’s “secret poison his malignity, infecting all air about him?”
From what does Hester hope to save Dimmesdale by telling him the truth about
Chillingworth?
Does Hester still love Dimmesdale? Use a quote to support your answer.
What is Dimmesdale’s reaction to the truth?
What future plans does Hester suggest to Dimmesdale as a way to escape Chillingworth?
Chapter 18 Vocabulary
Colloquy: conversation
Trammeled: beaten down
Inscrutable: unknowable
Tinge: tiny bit
Transmuting: Changing
Solemn: serious
Choleric: angry, emotional
Denizens: Citizens
Chapter 18 Questions
What is Dimmesdale’s decision in response to Hester’s plea that they leave the colony? Cite
a quote
What does Hester do that symbolizes putting the past behind them?
Hester’s transfiguration, foreshadowed in Chapter 13 occurs. What is the “magic touch”
that effects the transformation?
Why do you think the forest creatures are naturally drawn to Pearl?
Chapter 19 Vocabulary
ACCOSTING: address, greeting.
PRATTLE: to utter meaningless sounds suggestive of the chatter of children: babble.
INURED: accustomed to accept something undesirable.
MOLLIFIED: soothed in temper or disposition.
GESTICULATING: making gestures especially when speaking.
PRETERNATURAL: existing outside of nature: abnormal
ALLOY: to reduce the purity of by mixing with something debasing.
Chapter 19 Questions
Record and analyze Dimmesdale’s line: “Oh, Hester, what a thought is that, and how terrible
to dread it! that my own features were part repeated in her face, and so strikingly that the
world might see them!”
Why is Pearl upset when her mother calls her?
What is Pearl’s reaction to Dimmesdale? How is Pearl a symbol for Hester and
Dimmesdale?
Chapter 20 Vocabulary
VICISSITUDE: unexpectedly changing circumstances.
SOLACE: comfort in sorrow.
UNCOUTH: awkward or clumsy.
MUTABILITY: being liable or subject to change.
DEVOUT: sincere or hearty.
PITHY: having substance and point.
GILD: to make more attractive using deception.
POTENTATE: one who wields controlling power.
GRATUITOUS: without apparent reason or justification.
REQUITE: to make return for: repay.
Chapter 20 Questions
Where have Hester and Dimmesdale decided to go? Why?
How does Hester know the ship captain?
What does Dimmesdale want to to before he leaves?
Summarize Dimmesdale’s conversation with Mistress Hibbins.
What is the “Maze” for Dimmesdale?
Summarize Dimmesdale’s conversation with Chillingworth.
Summarize and analyze the last paragraph of the chapter.
Chapter 21 Vocabulary
PLEBIAN: one of the common people.
QUAFF: to drink deeply.
EFFERVESCE: to show liveliness or exhilaration.
MIRTH: gladness or gaiety as shown by or accompanied with laughter.
SCRUPLE: an ethical consideration or principle that inhabits action.
TEMPESTUOUS: turbulent, stormy.
PROBITY: adherence to the highest principles and ideals: uprightness.
Chapter 22 Vocabulary
CLARION: a medieval trumpet with clear shrill tones.
MERCENARY: one that serves merely for wages.
MORBID: gloomy or unwholesome feelings.
PATHOS: an emotion of sympathetic pity.
INDEFATIGABLE: incapable of being fatigued: untiring.
SWARTHY: being of a dark color, complexion, or cast.
SMITE: to attack or afflict suddenly and injuriously.
UNSCRUPULOUS: unprincipled.
STIGMA: a mark of shame
Chapter 21 and 22 Questions
What have the crowds of people gathered in the market-place to witness?
Of what ceremony in England was the Election Day pageantry a pale imitation?
What piece of unwelcome news does the ship master have for Hester?
What is particularly noticeable about Dimmesdale’s manner as he walks in the procession?
Where does Hester stand during the procession and during Dimmesdale’s sermon in the
church?
Chapter 23 Vocabulary
ORACLES: a person (as a priest) through whom a deity is believed to speak.
DEITY: Supreme Being: God.
LORE: something that is taught: lesson.
WROUGHT: deeply stirred: excited.
APOTHEOSIS: elevation to divine status.
INTIMATIONS: announcements.
NETHER: situated down or below: lower.
Chapter 23 Questions
How does Pearl react when Dimmesdale calls Hester and herself to mount the scaffold with
him?
Explain the significance of the scaffold
Explain the confusion surrounding the revelation.
Summarize Dimmesdale’s physical state before an after his sermon.
Explain why Chillingworth tries to stop Dimmesdale from confessing his sins on the
scaffold.
What do you think Dimmesdale means when he describes his and Hester’s sin as violating
“our reverence for each other’s soul”?
Chapter 24 Vocabulary
CONJECTURE: a conclusion deduced by surmise or guesswork.
NECROMANCER: a person who is believed to communicate with the spirits of the dead
(fortune teller or medium)
PORTENT: something that foreshadows a coming event: omen.
NUGATORY: having no force: inoperative.
BEQUEATHED: to hand down: transmit.
RECLUSE: marked by withdrawal from society: solitary.
Chapter 24 Questions
Following Dimmesdale’s death, summarize the fates of these characters:
Chillingworth
Pearl
Hester
What ironies are demonstrated in this chapter?