Show:
Symbolism
Characters
Context
The Custom House
Mystery Box
100
Initially a symbol of sin and public shame, this is later seen to represent "Able" or "Angel."
What is the scarlet letter 'A'?
100
A living embodiment of her mother's sin, she possesses a "rich and luxuriant beauty; a beauty that shone with deep and vivid tints; a bright complexion, eyes possessing intensity both of depth and glow, and hair already of a deep, glossy brown and which, in after years, would be nearly akin to black."
Who is Pearl?
100
The year the novel was first published.
What is the year 1850?
100
Hawthorne's job at the Customs House.
What is a 'surveyor'?
100
Words belonging to an earlier time and generally no longer used.
What are archaisms?
200
This place symbolically represents the dangerous, 'untamed' aspect of human nature as opposed to civilised society; the lack of inhibition when characters breaking free from Puritan contraints.
What is the forest?
200
Tragic hero, or coward? This character is described as the personification of "human frailty and sorrow" who struggles with his unconfessed sin, and grows paradoxically weaker in his body while his spiritual fervour increases until... well, he DIES.
Who is the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale?
200
A literary movement that Hawthorne identified with in his writing.
What is Romanticism?
200
Hawthorne describes them as "dim and dusky", "grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steeple crowned". He does not believe they would approve of his writing.
Who were Hawthorne's Puritan ancestors?
300
A symbol of untroubled, guilt-free happiness, or perhaps the approval of God and nature, Pearl chases it and believes she can catch it.
What is the sun/sunlight?
300
Although he "could hardly be termed aged," he has a wrinkled face and appears "well stricken in years". He was "misshapen" from birth.
Who is Roger Chillingworth?
300
The starting place of Colonial New England, where settlers from the Mayflower first set first. Puritans lived here from 1642-1649.
What is Plymouth Rock - Boston, Massachusetts?
300
A previous surveyor, this man was in possession of documents accompanying the scarlet letter that the narrator located after "poking and burrowing intro [a pile of] heaped-up rubbish in the corner" of the Customs House?
Who is Jonathan Pue?
300
The assessment of Arthur Dimmesdale by this person was: "A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part."
Who is Roger Chillingworth?
400
"It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow."
What is the rosebush?
400
This character is on a first-name basis with 'the Black Man'. She invites Hester to come join her in a witches' meeting in the forest at night - but luckily, Hester's soul is spared when she is so elated to have retained custody of her daughter that this sin cannot tempt her.
Who is Mistress Hibbins?
400
Originating in the mid-1600s, they separated from the Church of England with a belief in the 'priesthood of all believers' (1 Peter 2:9). They refused to participate in war, dressed plainly, possessed a strong work ethic but were persecuted by the Puritans.
Who are Quakers?
400
"It throws its unobtrusive tinge throughout the room, with a faint ruddiness upon the walls and ceiling, and a reflected gleam upon the polish of the furniture. This warmer light mingles itself with the cold spirituality of the moon-beams, and communicates, as it were, a heart and sensibilities of human tenderness to the forms which fancy summons up."
What is firelight? (the "dim coal fire" in the narrator's parlour)
400
The unity of a text; its coherent use of form and language to produce an integrated whole in terms of meaning and value.
What is textual integrity?
500
Hawthorne's description of this "unhappy fowl" above the entrance of the government building in 'The Custom House' symbolically portrays the United States government as supercilious and vengeful.
What is the American eagle?
500
"He wore a dark feather in his hat, a border of embroidery on his cloak, and a black velvet tunic beneath—a gentleman advanced in years, with a hard experience written in his wrinkles. He was not ill-fitted to be the head and representative of a community which owed its origin and progress, and its present state of development, not to the impulses of youth, but to the stern and tempered energies of manhood and the sombre sagacity of age; accomplishing so much, precisely because it imagined and hoped so little". Mistress Hibbins' brother.
Who is Governor Bellingham?
500
Born on Independence Day in 1804, he added a 'w' to his surname to distinguish himself from a legacy of strict Puritanism, including a notorious judge in the Salem witch trials of 1692-3.
Who is Nathaniel Hawthorne?
500
A British political party of Protestant, Constitutional Monarchists, to whom Hawthorne attributes blame for the loss of his position at the Custom House after change in government.
What is the Whig Party?
500
Dog.
What is Ms Young's favourite animal?