Scarlet Letter Study Questions

1. Hester's sin was committing adultery. The consequence of this was she had to wear a scarlet letter that, in a sense, inflicted pain upon it wearer for they could feel a burning in the spot where they wore it and feel the stares of everyone that saw it. This affects her character because it killed her spirit making her gloomy and dead on the inside. It also left her dead to the people, as she tried to sink from the public eye, but alive, because of the distinctness of the letter. Dimmesdale's sin was committing fornication and living a life of hypocrisy before his people. His consequence and the affect on his character was the agony, pain and anguish he that tormented him and the burning pain of the scarlet letter that he could feel on his heart, which in the end left the faint image of the letter on his chest. Chillingworth's sin was his thirst for revenge and lying to Dimmesdale about being his friend. The consequences and the affect on his character was the cold and dark feelings that he felt on the inside, and his feeling of emptiness when Dimmesdale died, taking away his purpose for living, reason and need for revenge.
2. Hawthorne uses a lot of figurative language, some of what he writes uses imagery like when he describes the burning scarlet letter. But what he uses the most are metaphors and similes like, " had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison." and "The eloquent voice, on which the souls of the listening audience had been borne aloft as on the swelling waves of the sea, at length came to a pause." He also uses symbolism like when he calls Pearl the scarlet letter endowed with life or said that the weed was on the grave because it grew from the heart of a man with a terrible secret.
3. During Hester's time there was this thing going around known as being a "true woman". Hester is one of literatures first feminist because she threw off the shackles of being a "true woman". The first was committing adultery. Due to the oppression of being a "true woman" she was forced to marry a man she did not love and whom she admitted and told straight to his face she didn't. By committing adultery she gave her self the choice of being with the man she loved and she didn't regret it, but embraced what she did. The second was being a single mother. Throughout the seven-year period in the book she not only raised a child by herself, but she provided for the child by working all the while taking care of the household duties that needed to be done. She also didn't keep her daughter from expressing herself freely, she let her play in the streets while they were going through the market-place and didn't discipline her for standing up for herself and showing some real human emotions which seemed to go against the Puritan religion. She also defied the magistrates by not telling whom it was she committed adultery with and protesting the governor when he tried to take her child away from her. Her last act was trying to flee with Dimmesdale, Pearl, and leave behind all the shame which she brought up herself, so in a sense she was trying to defy the authority of the town and flee with the people and acts that made her a feminist.
4. The second scene acts as the climax because it reveals the answer to questions that the reader wants to know. Who was the one that Hester committed her crime with and who was Pearl's father? It also serves as the turning point in Dimmesdale and Chillingworth's relationship when Chillingworth's true motives is finally revealed to Dimmesdale, and he doesn't hesitate in letting Chillingworth know that he knows who he is. It also confirms Chillingworth's suspicions about Dimmesdale and lets him know that his cover is blown and getting revenge is going to be harder.
5. Pearl name is symbolic because like an actual pearl she is rare and a treasure to her mother. Her mother says that not only is she the object of her greatest affection but the object of her greatest suffering, and that she brings her great joy and pain. Thus she is her treasure and her burden that keeps her from making the same mistake and falling to sin again. Dimmesdale is symbolic because he is a dimwit, (DIMmesdale, DIMwit) seriously he isn't very bright. He knows that there is something wrong and that something or someone is watching him waiting for him to slip up, and he knows he gets the feeling every time Chillingworth is around, but he can't figure out for nothing that Chillingworth is the reason he is getting that feeling. Chillingworth is symbolic because of the chills he sends down Dimmesdale spine and uneasiness he makes Dimmesdale feel. Its also symbolic because it represents his how cold he is now compared to the warm affectionate man he used to be.
6. Hester attitude changes from a dead feeling to acceptance. At first she couldn’t stand having the letter on her chest and it made her feel dead, shameful and embarrassed on the inside. She stays away from everyone throughout the story for the most part to avoid the stares and the feeling she gets from them. She even has the idea to run away and actually decides to run away with Dimmesdale so she could feel freedom from the scarlet letter, which she actually feels for a brief moment in the forest. Towards the end after Dimmesdale dies and she is given a chance to escape she takes it but inevitably comes back on her own free will and takes upon her the shame which she left behind, accepting the face that she committed a crime and that she has to and that to redeem herself she must suffer the punishment of her crime where she committed it and she must do it alone.