Scarlet Letter

Quiz One Chapters 1-6

1. What is the setting of the novel (time and place)?

2. What is the SYMBOLISM of the rose bush by the prison door?

3. Why do you think the author mentions “utopia” while discussing the
Puritan settlement?

4. What does Hawthorne state this story is going to be about (hint: it’s on
page 46)? Include a QUOTE directly from the text:

5. What do the women who talk before Hester walks out the jail think should
be the punishment for Hester’s sin? There are a few different choices.

6. How does Hester exit the jail and face the people?

7. What has Hester done to the scarlet ‘A’ upon her chest?

8. What images run through Hester’s mind as she is up on the scaffold?

9. Where was Hester’s husband and why did he not join her right away?

10.Why does Chillingworth want Hester to keep it a secret that he is actually

her husband?

11.Why, do you think, the narrator tells us that Bellingham and Wilson are
men who “had no right” to “meddle with a question of human guilt,
passion, and anguish.”

12.What are some of the traits of Reverend Dimmesdale that we have seen
so far?

13.Why doesn’t Hester just leave the New England community? Include a
QUOTE directly from the text:

14.How does Hester support herself and her daughter?

15.What one thing is Hester NOT allowed to make for the townspeople?
16.What do we learn about Hester’s personality from ch. 4?
17.How do those whom Hester helps treat her?

18.Why does Hawthorne focus specifically on Hester’s thoughts and feelings,

especially in ch. 5?

19.What does “ignominy” mean and why does Hawthorne mention it so

frequently?

20.Why does Hester name her daughter Pearl? Include a QUOTE directly from
the text:

21.What kind of child is Pearl? Does she obey her mother, is she polite and
shy?

22.How does Hester discipline Pearl?

23.Do what things or people is Pearl compared?

24.“The talk of the neighboring townspeople; who, seeking vainly elsewhere

for the child’s paternity, and observing some of her odd attributes, had
given out that poor little Pearl was…” Using this quote, who do the
townspeople believe might be the father of Pearl and why might she be
here on Earth?

25.Hester Prynne no longer cares that people stare at the scarlet letter; it
doesn’t bother her.
TRUE FALSE

26.Roger Chillingworth is a smart but deformed young man.

TRUE FALSE

27.Hester stays in the Puritan community because leaving would prove that
society has control over her life—she wants to prove that what they say
does not matter to her.
TRUE FALSE

28.Hawthorne put little or no thought into the names of his characters.

TRUE FALSE

29.Hester decides to stay in the Puritan community because the father of

Pearl is there.
TRUE FALSE

30.Pearl is accepted among other children.

TRUE FALSE