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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. In Chapter 14, the narrator symbolized the truth by what?
(a) "A fletched arrow."
(b) "A mysterious maze."
(c) "A red-hot iron."
(d) "A tall white pedestal."

2. Who retrieves the object that Hester flings away?
(a) No one.
(b) Pearl.
(c) Hester.
(d) Dimmesdale.

3. Who is mentioned in Chapter 13 as a "foundress of a religious sect?"
(a) Hutichison.
(b) Mother Theresa.
(c) Hibbins.
(d) Bradstreet.

4. Whom does Hester decide to seek out for a meeting at the end of Chapter 13?
(a) Her (former) husband.
(b) Her daughter.
(c) Her lover.
(d) Her confessor.

5. What does Hester fling next to the brook?
(a) Chillingworth's herbs.
(b) Her bonnet.
(c) Dimmesdale's Bible.
(d) Her scarlet letter.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who in the audience taunts Hester and Pearl at the appearance of Dimmesdale?

2. Next to whom is Hester Prynne eventually buried?

3. Despite his triumph in delivering the sermon in Chapter 23, how does Dimmesdale appear?

4. What does Dimmesdale tell Chillingworth while he is writing the sermon is Chapter 20?

5. What facial expression of Chillingworth displays his true malice, which the narrator calls "his blackness" in Chapter 14?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 14, what does Hester ask of Chillingworth?

2. How does Pearl decorate herself at the end of Chapter 18 differently from how she did in the woods when Hester met Chillingworth?

3. According to the narrator, what appeared to be Dimmesdale's subject, in his sermon in Chapter 23?

4. Why does Hester go to meet Dimmesdale in the woods?

5. What, according to the narrator, enlivened the public holiday with "some diversity of hue?"

6. 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?

7. What kinds of thoughts occur to Dimmesdale when he sees a deacon on the way home in Chapter 20 and why?

8. How does Hawthorne describe Dimmesdale, either physically or emotionally, at the beginning of Chapter 13?

9. Why will Hester and Dimmesdale have to head back to Europe, instead of moving somewhere more rural or remote?

10. Many people pass Dimmesdale by in this chapter; why are so many people up so late and walking about?

(see the answer keys)

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