The Scarlet Letter Test Close reading test
1. In the passage beginning at the bottom of page 37 (It was a circumstance…) and ending on
page 39 (here comes Mistress Prynne herself), the narrator seems to feel that the women of the
era
A) are harsher in their judgments than are the ruling men B) are overly submissive to men C)
are without exception bitter-tempered D) are more refined than the narrator’s
contemporaries E) are explicitly to blame for Hester’s sin
2. The conversation beginning “Goodwives” (page 38) and ending “…Mistress Prynne herself”
(page 39), is best characterized by several
A) personifications B) euphemisms C) images D) hyperboles E) rhetorical questions
3. The mood of the last paragraph in Chapter 3 can best be described as:
A) deprecatory
B) despondent
C) serene
D) satiric
E) opulent
4. Which of the following lines from the last paragraph on page 93 is the best example of a
metaphor?
A) “the two were lodged in the same house”
B) “ebb and flow of the minister’s life tide”
C) “the best possible measure for the young clergyman’s welfare”
D) “this latter step, however,”
E) “as if priestly celibacy were one of his articles of church discipline”
5. The last paragraphs of chapters 7 and 11 are most similar in that they
A) suggest an inherent sagacity in the characters. B) emphasize the dominate themes of
Romanticism. C) juxtapose the sinful life with the eternal hopefulness of purification. D)
develop a suspenseful and anticipatory mood. E) contrast the imperious nature of a character
faced with difficult circumstances.
6. The word inimical as it is used on the top of page 97 (8 lines from the top) must likely means:
A) timorous
B) hostile
C) lascivious
D) mournful
E) vacant
7. The sentence beginning with “No golden light” and ending with “this dark forest” on the
bottom of page 146 until the top of 147 is an example of:
A) euphemistic language B) metonymy C) paradoxical ideas D) an oxymoron E)
personification
8. The subject of the main clause in the sentence beginning “But, partly that she dreaded” (page
137 – toward the end of the 1st paragraph) is
A) interference B) breathe C) Chillingworth D) Hester E) open sky
9. The antecedent of “this” in the phrase “Perhaps this, too” (page 138 – 6 lines from the bottom)
is
A) Pearl B) vivacity C) sadness D) scrofula E) troubles
10. At the end of Chapter 18, Hawthorne most likely includes Pearl’s interaction with the
animals to
A) deprecate and attack Pearl’s image; juxtaposing her with animals makes her seem less
human
B) further draw a link between Pearl and the natural world; Pearl is clearly comfortable with
nature.
C) demonstrate how animalistic all the characters are in the novel, especially Pearl who is
continually compared with animals.
D) further emphasize her evil and malicious side as he has effectively done throughout the
novel
E) suggest that Pearl is not at all human; Hawthorne wants the reader to believe that she will turn
into an animal by the end of the novel.
11. The word “engages” (the last sentence of page 183) is best interpreted to mean:
A) agrees B) hires C) intends D) promises E) marries
12. Which of the following is NOT a significant symbol that we discussed in class?
A) the mossy tree trunk B) the contrasting professions of Chillingworth and Dimmesdale C)
the meteor D) Pearl’s natural and flowing hair E) the name “Pearl”
13. In the passage that begins with “During all this time” on the bottom of page 182 and ends
with “put it on” on the top of page 185”, the narrator characterizes Pearl by means of all of the
following EXCEPT:
A) description of her actions B) description of Hester’s response to her actions C) descriptions
of the reactions of the Puritans to Pearl
D) descriptions of the reactions of characters other than the Puritans to Pearl E) metaphors and
similes
14. Which of the following literary terms could be best applied to the last two sentences of the
middle paragraph on 187 (Such was the position…on her breast).
A) Metaphor B) Syntax C) Juxtaposition D) Microcosm
E) Allusion
15. In the context of the novel as a whole, the crowd’s assessment of Dimmesdale’s faintness
(page 189, 5 lines from the top– the sentence beginning with “This earthly”) is best described as
A) satiric B) ironic C) pervasive D) latent E) duplicitous
16. In the final paragraph on page 194, the narrator characterizes Roger Chillingworth by means
of
A) an allusion B) a parable C) a metaphor D) euphemism E) a simile
17. In the passage that begins at the start of Chapter 24 (“After many days”) and ends on the top
of page 195 (“transmuted into golden love”), the narrator’s perspective in the passage is
primarily that of
A) an uninvolved eyewitness B) a defender of Puritan society C) an acquaintance of the
minister D) a reporter of historical events E) an admirer of Dimmesdale’s defenders
18. The movement of Romanticism took place primarily in ________ centuries.
A) 16th-17th B) 17th-18th C) 18th-19th D) 19th-20th E) 20th-21st
19. Which of the following is not a characteristic of Romanticism that we discussed in relation to
the novel
A) strong emotions
B) a critique of the aristocracy C) a reliance on nature D) balance of science and spirituality E)
heroic figures
20. Throughout the novel, we have discussed Hawthorne’s allusions to all of the following
EXCEPT
A) Greek myths, stories and tales B) the Old testament