The Scarlet Letter
Study Questions
Chapters 1-4

    Hawthorne opens The Scarlet Letter just outside the prison of what, in the early 1640's, was the village of Boston.

    Look carefully at the details of the opening scene:   "The sad-colored carments" of the spectators; the prison door itself, "heavily timbered with oad and studded with iron spides."  These details create what kind of mood or picure of Boston?

    In This Chapter only one note of color relieves the mood.   What symbol is there to give some hope to the people of Boston?

"The Market Place"

    What Hester has done is a private wrong, but in Puritan Boston this is public business.  What crime has she committed?

    Who are the most merciless people in Boston?

    Describe Hester as she "issues out of the prison."

    When she gets out of the prison, what is it about Hester or her begavior that upsets the people of Boston the most?

"The Recognition"

   As Hester stands on the scaffold, thinking of her husband, he appears before her startled eyes at the edge of the crowd.  Who is with this "misshapen scholar"?

    Where has he been since he got to the New World?

    According to the bottom of page 58, where is Hester and her husband originally from?

    On page 63 a certain minister is called upon to try to talk Hester into telling who the father of the baby was.  Who is he?

    Now that you know who he is, read the back of the book and then explain the irony of his situation on page 63.

"The Interview"

   This chapter brings together the estranged husband and wife in the privacy of the Boston prison.  Chillingworth has come to the prison as the doctor helping the distraught Hester and her baby.

    Why is Hester hesitant to give her baby the medicine Roger Chillingworth gives her?

    Why doesn't Chillingworth want anyone to know he is Hester's husband?  This answer is commonsense to most guys?

    Is Hester right in shielding Dimmesdale from punishment?   Explain.