The Scarlet Letter Socratic Seminar Topics for Discussion List
Chapters 1 – 6
1. Motifs: light/darkness
2. Motifs: Roses
3. Allusions
4. Power Hester believes the letter gives her
5. When one eye looks at the letter it
doesn’t hurt
6. Hawthorne’s portrayal of women in the
town
7. Dimmesdale’s plea with Hester to give the
name
8. Reasons for staying in Boston
9. Pearl?
Chapters 7 – 11
1. Motifs: Roses
2. Motifs: the scarlet letter
3. Allusions
4. Symbols?
5. What does Chillingworth see on
Dimmesdale’s chest?
6. Chillingworth’s realization
7. Chillingworth’s pressure on Dimmesdale
8. Leech
9. Physical deformity/ugliness: what does it
reveal?
10. Dimmesdale’s church confession
11. Pearl?
12. Love or lust?
Chapters 12 – 18
1. Visit to scaffold
2. The plan
3. The worst sinner
4. Motifs: Light/Dark, the letter
5. Permission to tell Dimmesdale
6. Irony of “Pastor and His Parishioner”
7. Foreshadowing for Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale
8. Feminist comment; symbolism of 7
9. Role of nature in these chapters
10. Sympathy for Dimmesdale?
11. Predict Pearl’s reaction to Hester w/out letter
Chapters 19 – 24
1. Pearl’s reaction to Dimmesdale
2. Knowledge gained by sin
3. “Minister in a maze”
4. Theme: one face to yourself, another to the
multitude
5. Chillingworth as foil
6. Hester’s resentment of Arthur’s apparent
happiness
7. “The spell is broken”
8. What is on Dimmesdale’s chest?
9. Fates of the characters
10. Moral of the story?
11. Meaning of the grave marker
12. Foreshadowing
13. Feminist comment: is love and hate the same at
the bottom?