The Scarlet Letter by
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Photo of Old State House, 1870, from the Bostonian Society

What were the two purposes of
Hawthorne’s essay “The Custom-
House”?
• Depict his enemies as idiots
• Be the prologue for The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is America’s first…
• True psychological novel

Describe Hester Prynne.
• Beautiful
• Loving
• Loyal to love
• True to herself

Describe Roger Chillingworth.
• Hester’s husband
• Sends her ahead to the New World
• Motivated by revenge
• Using a fake name

Describe Arthur Dimmesdale.
• Hester’s lover
• Loving
• Guilt-ridden
• Eventually finds courage to stand up for love

Describe Pearl.
• Hester & Dimmesdale’s daughter
• Name shows her as symbol of overcoming adversity

What is Hester’s crime?
• adultery

What is Hester’s punishment
(three parts)?
• Jail time
• Stand on scaffold for a day
• Wear scarlet (red) “A” on chest for ever

Who advocated mercy for Hester?
• Dimmesdale

Why hasn’t Hester seen her husband in a long time?
• Two years ago, he sent her alone to the new world

Explain the symbol of the rosebush outside the prison.
• The beautiful rosebush outside the ugly prison, a place of pain, symbolizes Hester who is a bit of goodness and beauty in this bleak Puritan society.

How do people treat Hester after her release from prison?
• They won’t talk to her
• They still buy her beautiful embroidered items.
Photo by Aimee Ray

What does Chillingworth want?
• To find out the name of Hester’s lover
• To get revenge on Hester’s lover

What do Hester and Dimmesdale plan to do? How does Chillingworth try to ruin their plans?
• They are going to take a boat to England.
• Chillingworth books passage on the same boat.

What is Dimmesdale’s triumph?
• He delivers the greatest sermon of his life
• He reveals that he was Hester’s lover
• He shows his self-injury to the crowd

What happens to Chillingworth after the big revelation?
• He dies within the year

How does Hester redeem herself and change the symbolism of the scarlet “A” she has worn?
• She nurses the sick and helps the needy
• She is always accepting of everyone
• The “A” comes to be a symbol of mercy

Explain the difference between sins of passion and sins of principle.
• A sin of passion comes from strong feelings, like love
• A sin of principle is a coldly calculated violation of someone else’s soul

What is a “romance” and how is it different from a novel?
• A romance is a prose narrative that deals with its subjects and characters in a symbolic, imaginative and non-realistic way
• A novel is realistic; a romance is not