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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Which of the following creatures is not mentioned while Pearl plays on the shore?
2. What does Hester fling next to the brook?
3. What is the holiday referred to in the title of Chapter 21?
4. While she is playing, Pearl makes a little boat out of what?
5. What had Dimmesdale been doing to himself?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does Pearl decorate herself at the end of Chapter 18 differently from how she did in the woods when Hester met Chillingworth?
2. Why does Hawthorne describe Pearl, in Chapter 19, as a "living hieroglyphic."
3. What does Pearl do with the seaweed she finds, and what does it show about her as a character?
4. Why does Hester go to meet Dimmesdale in the woods?
5. When Dimmesdale refuses to travel and quit his post as minister, how does Hester change his mind?
6. In Chapter 14, why is Chillingworth in the woods?
7. Why will Hester and Dimmesdale have to head back to Europe, instead of moving somewhere more rural or remote?
8. In Chapter 16, Hester changes her story to Pearl about the significance of the scarlet letter. What does she say about the letter in Chapter 16?
9. Where does Dimmesdale go at the beginning of Chapter 12, and why?
10. What kinds of thoughts occur to Dimmesdale when he sees a deacon on the way home in Chapter 20 and why?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Despite the dark tone and dour mood of this novel, Hawthorne's narrative voice does offer some levity, irony and humor to lighten the mood at key points in this novel, including the irony in some of the chapter titles. Pick several examples of this irony, other forms of irony, archness/humor, and explain how these examples help lighten the mood.
Essay Topic 2
This novel relies on symbolism to tell its story of psychological torment. Pick several of the major symbols or symbolic systems at work in the novel, describe them in terms of Hawthorne's fictional technique and offer an interpretation of their symbolic meaning on multiple levels.
Essay Topic 3
Hester Prynne is a single mother in Puritan New England. Explain and analyze the way Hawthorne characterizes her, using specific examples of his technique, as well as the way he dramatizes her psychology. Be sure to consider the choices Hester makes/is forced to make throughout the novel. Is Hester a strong character or a weak one? What do you think of the way she has conducted herself? Back up your arguments with specific textual examples.
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This section contains 1,046 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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