The Scarlet Letter
Chapters 20 to 24
Warm UP:
Cite specific quotes or passages when answering the
following questions:
• What is your genuine reaction to the novel’s
conclusion?
• Did it end as you think it should have? What would
you change?
• What aspects did you find worthwhile?
• What do you think Hawthorne could/should have
omitted?
• What themes does Hawthorne make evident?
20. “Minister in a Maze”…
• Explore the significance, including irony,
of the statement below. Consider the views
of Transcendentalists, Romantics and
Puritans in your response.
“Another man had returned out of the
forest; a wiser one; with a knowledge of
hidden mysteries which the simplicity of the
former never could have reached. A bitter
kind of knowledge that!” (Hawthorne 201)
20. “Minister in a Maze”…
• Basic: Describe the urges that Dimmesdale
has after his meeting with Hester in the
forest.
• Higher Level: What themes does
Hawthorne make evident through these
urges?
• Highest Level: Analyze those themes
through a psychological lense. Consider
“YGB” in your analysis.
21. “The N.E. Holiday”
“[T]he Puritans compressed whatever mirth and
public joy they deemed allowable to human
infirmity; thereby so far dispelling the customary
cloud, that, for the space of a single holiday, they
appeared scarcely more grave than most other
communities at a period of general affliction.”
(Hawthorne 216) 4th page of 21
What is Hawthorne saying about the level of
joviality occurring at this Puritan festival?
21. “The N.E. Holiday”
Basic: What are the major activities the
occur during the Election Day celebration?
(Hawthorne 217-218)
Higher Level: What do they indicate about
the Puritan people?
Highest Level: How do they foreshadow
the concluding action of the novel?
21. “The N.E. Holiday”
What is the significance of the Native
Americans and Mariners being described
attending the Election Day festivities? (218)
The picture of human life in the market-place, though its general tint
was the sad gray, brown, or black of the English emigrants, was yet
enlivened by some diversity of hue. A party of Indians--in their savage
finery of curiously embroidered deer-skin robes, wampum-belts, red
and yellow ochre, and feathers, and armed with the bow and arrow and
stone-headed spear--stood apart, with countenances of inflexible
gravity, beyond what even the Puritan aspect could attain. Nor, wild as
were these painted barbarians, were they the wildest feature of the
scene. This distinction could more justly be claimed by some mariners
22. “The procession”
How does Hester’s impression of Dimmesdale foreshadow
the novel’s conclusion? What theme(s) does it make
evident?
“Her spirit sank with the idea that all must have been a
delusion, and that, vividly as she had dreamed it, there
could be no real bond betwixt the clergyman and herself.
And thus much of woman was there in Hester, that she
could scarcely forgive him,--least of all now, when the heavy
footstep of their approaching Fate might be heard, nearer,
nearer, nearer!--for being able so completely to withdraw
himself from their mutual world; while she groped darkly,
and stretched forth her cold hands, and found him not.”
(Hawthorne 224)
22. “The procession”
Basic: How is Dimmesdale’s sermon
described?
Higher Level: Keeping in mind the question
from the previous slide, what is significant
about Hester’s vantage point of his speech?
Highest Level: Identify specific parallels
between Dimmesdale’s sermon and the brook
in chapter 16? What is significant about those
parallels?
23. “The Revelation”
Basic: How is Puritan people’s reaction to
Dimmesdale’s sermon described?
Higher Level: Identify specific parallels between
Dimmesdale’s sermon, the Puritan people’s
reaction and the brook in chapter 16?
Highest Level: If the forest, Dimmesdale’s speech
and the Puritan people maintain these parallels,
what theme is Hawthorne revealing through all
three?
23. “The Revelation”
Basic: Explore the irony of Dimmesdale’s
escaping Chillingworth on the scaffold.
Highest Level: What theme is Hawthorne
revealing through this escape?
23. “The Revelation”
Explore the ways in which the following quote
reinforces Pearl’s role as a living scarlet letter:
Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great
scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part,
had developed all her sympathies; and as her tears fell
upon her father's cheek, they were the pledge that she
would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor for
ever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it.
Towards her mother, too, Pearl's errand as a
messenger of anguish was all fulfilled. (238)
23. “The Revelation”
Are Dimmesdale’s dying words in line with the
novel’s themes or do they contradict them?
Explain.
“I fear! It may be, that, when we forgot our God,-when we violated our reverence each for the
other's soul,--it was thenceforth vain to hope that
we could meet hereafter, in an everlasting and pure
reunion. God knows; and He is merciful! He hath
proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions.”
(239)
24. “Conclusion”
How does this quote tie into the psychological
analysis of the novel? Is it accurate? Why? Why
not?
"Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the
world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby
the worst may be inferred!"
24. “Conclusion”
Do you agree with Hawthorne’s explanation of
love and hate? Use the novel and the real world
to support your assertion.
“It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry,
whether hatred and love be not the same thing at
bottom[. . .]Philosophically considered, therefore,
the two passions seem essentially the same, except
that one happens to be seen in a celestial radiance,
and the other in a dusky and lurid glow.” (242)
24. “Conclusion”
Do you agree with Hester’s decision to return to
New England?
What is Hawthorne’s purpose in having her
return?