Setting and Background
What city does The Scarlet Letter take place in?
Boston, Massachusetts
What is the name of Hester’s illegitimate child?
Pearl
What is the title of chapter 1?
“The Prison-Door”
What is the title of chapter 3? (I may or may not have gotten a little lazy)
“The Recognition”
The rose bush
What branch of Christianity do the characters follow?
Puritanism
What causes Hester’s child to cry out at the end of chapter two?
Hester grabs her ‘fiercely’ after realizing the gravity and shame of their situation.
So far, have the puritans come off as more forgiving or strict?
Definitely strict, and even vicious at times
This punishment was commonly given to puritans convicted of adultery (by comparison, Hester’s sentence feels lenient)
What is Death?
What is the name of the young pastor, who is described as having a “tremendously sweet, rich, deep, and broken” voice? Additionally, Governor Bellingham tells him “the responsibility of this woman’s (Hester’s) soul lies greatly with you.”
Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale
What does Hester reminisce over after reaching the platform where she is to be humiliated?
Her life up to this point (Her hometown, parents, and husband are acceptable answers)
“Never!” And “I will not speak!”
Name one of the two buildings that were deemed “early practical necessities” by the founders of the community now known as Boston (from the first page of chapter 1)
Acceptable Answers: a cemetery or a prison
This “grim and grisly” appearing man carries a sword and a staff with him, and he leads Hester Prynne to her place of punishment (You can see him on our cover of the novel)
The town-beadle
Why were some spectators frustrated at the sight of Hester’s embroidered scarlet A?
They believed she deserved much harsher punishment (some suggested branding or even death)
What did Hester notice about the stranger that caused her to clutch her baby tightly again?
She sees that one of the stranger’s shoulders rises higher than the other (like her husband)
The scaffold that Hester arrives at is described as standing “nearly beneath the eaves” of what?
Boston’s earliest church
This character is described as wearing “a dark feather in his hat, a border of embroidery on his cloak, and a black velvet tunic underneath” in chapter 3.
Who is Governor Bellingham?
What is the meaning of the following quote: “for, haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon”.
This walk of shame from the prison to the marketplace is humiliating and torturous for Hester.
How long is Hester ordered to stand in front of the crowd to be shamed (This is considered an extraordinarily generous punishment)?
“They have doomed Mistress Prynne to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory”