Symbols & Signs
With its heavy oak and rusted iron spikes, this structure introduced in Chapter 1 represents the cold, unforgiving weight of Puritan institutional law.
What is the prison door?
These "iron-visaged" older women in the crowd fiercely criticize Hester, feeling that her gorgeous gold embroidery mocks their legal punishment.
Who are the old Puritan matrons (or gossips)?
Despite her high demand as a skilled seamstress, Hester is strictly forbidden from ever embroidering these specific items for young Puritan women.
What are bridal veils?
During his balcony address, this young pastor publicly demands that Hester name the father, masking a desperate private plea for her to protect his secret identity.
Who is Arthur Dimmesdale?
Hester first recognizes him standing at the edge of the crowd in Chapter 3 by his cultivated, scholarly features and this physical deformity.
What are slightly uneven shoulders?
Hester deliberately dresses her in a crimson velvet tunic embroidered with gold thread, making her a living copy of the Scarlet Letter.
Who is Pearl?
Blooming beside the prison threshold, this offers a token that Nature extends pity and sweet moral solace to human frailty.
What is the wild rosebush?
He is the older clergyman who questions Pearl about her religious knowledge and asks who "made" her during the custody hearing.
Who is Reverend Wilson?
She physically symbolizes her position on the moral and social margin between the town and the forest by choosing to live in this location.
What is an abandoned cottage on the outskirts of Boston?
Seeking secret, agonizing relief for his unconfessed guilt under the cover of darkness, Dimmesdale mounts this public structure in the middle of the night.
What is the scaffold?
Inside the prison cell, he forces Hester to swear she will never reveal that he is her legal husband.
Who is Roger Chillingworth?
When Reverend Wilson asks who made her, Pearl answers that she was not made at all, but was plucked off of this.
What is the wild rosebush by the prison door?
When Hester looks into this at the Governor's mansion, her reflection is visually distorted, making her seem completely hidden behind a giant Scarlet Letter.
What is Governor Bellingham's breastplate? (or Governor's armor)
Revealing the struggle between European tradition and New England survival, this man’s estate features sprawling pumpkin vines and cabbages overrunning his ornamental gardens.
Who is Governor Bellingham?
In Chapter 4, Hester takes a solemn oath in her prison cell promising never to reveal this secret to the people of Boston.
What is Roger Chillingworth's true identity (that he is her husband)?
Depicting adultery and hidden guilt, the tapestries hanging on the walls of Dimmesdale's lodgings feature this biblical king and Bathsheba.
Who is King David?
Roger Chillingworth throws his arms upward and dances in "ghastly rapture" at the end of Chapter 10 after pulling open sleeping this man's shirt.
Who is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale?
While playing near the minister's window in Chapter 10, Pearl fastens these prickly items along the outline of Hester's scarlet letter and throws one at Dimmesdale's chest.
What are graveyard burrs?
In Chapter 15, Pearl fashions her own uncorrupted, natural version of the Scarlet Letter out of this green aquatic plant.
What is eel-grass?
This eccentric woman invites Hester to join the "Black Man" in the forest at the end of Chapter 8.
Who is Mistress Hibbins?
Hester declines Mistress Hibbins' invitation to the forest, stating she must guard her child, but admits she would have gladly gone if the magistrates had taken this away from her.
What is custody of Pearl?
To successfully persuade Governor Bellingham to let Hester keep custody, Dimmesdale argues that Pearl was sent by God to act as both a blessing and this.
What is a torture? (to keep Hester's soul from deeper sin)
When he pulls open his patient’s shirt, Roger dances in rapture because he supposedly sees this etched onto the reverend's chest.
What is a secret mark (or a scarlet 'A')?
In the essay section of the test, Pearl's green eel-grass 'A' is used to represent this, directly contrasting with Hester's societal shame.
What is uncorrupted natural innocence?
(also acceptable: nature, innocence, freedom)
During the midnight scaffold vigil, Dimmesdale interprets this giant red celestial phenomenon as exposing his secret sin, while the townspeople think it stands for "Angel."
What is the meteor?
By Chapter 13, Hester's self-less actions in the community cause the townspeople to believe the 'A' on her chest has evolved to stand for this word.
What is "Able"?
Hester's open conformity to her punishment is directly contrasted with this character's corrosive, hidden guilt.
Who is Arthur Dimmesdale?
While Hester wears her shame openly, Dimmesdale’s sin remains a hidden public secret, causing a rapid decline in this.
What is his physical and spiritual health?
The townspeople initially view Chillingworth as a miraculous gift from God to heal their sick minister, referring to him by this common, albeit creepy, term for doctors.
What is a leech?
Pearl serves as a constant, living reminder of the conflict between rigid societal law and this untamed force.
What is nature, and/or human passion?