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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who, in Chapter 5, is referred to as "the figure, the body, the reality of sin?"
(a) Dimmesdale.
(b) Hester.
(c) Hibbins.
(d) Pearl.

2. What are the "delicate gems" referred to at the end of Chapter 1?
(a) Flowers.
(b) The spikes on the door to the jail.
(c) The ladies in the crowd.
(d) Hester's pearl necklace.

3. The following description of someone's eyes in Chapter 10 refers to which character: "burning blue and ominous, like the reflection of a furnace....like one of those gleams of ghastly fire"?
(a) Hester.
(b) Chillingworth.
(c) Dimmesdale.
(d) Pearl.

4. Which one of the following descriptions does not apply to Pearl?
(a) "airy sprite"
(b) "little elf"
(c) "beautiful munchkin"
(d) "sole treasure"

5. What is the "pedestal of infamy?"
(a) The scaffold.
(b) The altar.
(c) The governor's mantle.
(d) The steeple.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was the father of the Custom-House?

2. What, at the end of Chapter 11, is the "only truth" for Dimmesdale?

3. This preface is the preface to which edition of the novel?

4. Hester's work is seen everywhere with the exception of:

5. Who is Hester's legal husband?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Hawthorne find alongside the scarlet letter?

2. Describe the setting Hawthorne describes of the busy wharf.

3. What has happened to the original spirit of the town of Salem, as in, to the legacy of the original founders?

4. What are some examples of Chillingworth's growing power over Dimmesdale?

5. What does Hawthorne say the purpose of the eagle is, which hangs in front of the building?

6. Why does Hawthorne say that it is ironic that Pearl is such a beautiful child, in Chapter 6?

7. Of all the finery in the governor's mansion, what does Pearl cry for most of all?

8. In Chapter 2, why might it be Mistress Hibbins who would be in the jail?

9. Describe the door to the jail.

10. As the relationship between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale develops in Chapter 9, what do the townspeople begin to suspect about Dimmesdale and why?

(see the answer keys)

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