Detailed questions for The Scarlet Letter
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This list of questions deals with details, characters, themes and symbols found in The Scarlet Letter.
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Solution Summary
This is a list of sixty questions. These questions deal with major and minor details in The Scarlet Letter. These questions are designed to help students read the novel carefully and thoughtfully.
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1. How does the opening chapter set the mood of the novel?
2. What is significant about the rosebush beside the prison door? What does it symbolize?
3. Discuss the attitudes of most of the women gathered before the prison. How do they regard Hester Prynne and her crime? Why? Do they believe her punishment just? Explain.
4. Describe Hester Prynne's first appearance in public.
5. Besides being doomed to wear the scarlet letter, what other punishment is meted out to Hester?
6. How does Hester figuratively escape her present punishment on the scaffold? What does the reader learn about her past in this scene?
7. Whom does Hester recognize in the stranger at the edge of the crowd? What is his reaction when he recognizes her?
8. What is Mr. Dimmesdale's reaction to the appeal of his fellow clergyman and the governor? What does he reveal by this reaction and by his speech to Hester Prynne?
9. What inducement is offered to Hester for revealing the name of her child's father?
10. Who visits Hester at the prison? Why does he choose to hide his true identity?
11. What purpose does Hester's needlework serve? From what is it excluded?
12. How are Hester and her child treated subsequent to her confinement and public shame?
13. How does Hester dress herself and Pearl? How is this contrast important? What does Pearl's attire represent?
14. How does Hester respond to the cruel treatment of the ...
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- BA, Shorter University
- MA, Georgia Southern University
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