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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. What does Pearl do when Dimmesdale kisses her?
2. Where have Hester and Dimmesdale decided would be the best place to escape to?
3. What group of people leads the procession referred to in the title of Chapter 22?
4. Why do Hester and Dimmesdale chose the place they do to escape to?
5. What is the holiday referred to in the title of Chapter 21?
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. What does Pearl do with the seaweed she finds, and what does it show about her as a character?
4. How does the narrator describe the public officials in Chapter 22, many of whom were real historical figures (figures such as Bradstreet, Endicott, etc.)?
5. Why do Hester and Pearl gather with other townspeople at the beginning of Chapter 21?
6. Why does Hester go to meet Dimmesdale in the woods?
7. Why, in Chapter 18, does Hester remove the scarlet letter and fling it into a brook?
8. In Chapter 14, why is Chillingworth in the woods?
9. When Dimmesdale refuses to travel and quit his post as minister, how does Hester change his mind?
10. According to the narrator, what appeared to be Dimmesdale's subject, in his sermon in Chapter 23?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Some critics might characterize parts of this work as feminist, particularly considering the role of Hester Prynne vis-a-vis her interactions with Governor Bellingham and the other public officials who want to take Pearl away from her. Argue this point in an analytical essay: does this particular sequence in the novel represent a feminist approach to custody? Decide whether you think so or not, and construct a well-reasoned argument that makes use of specific textual examples. (Note: there is no "right" answer: you can argue yes, no or maybe, as long as you construct a textual argument with specific and precise reasoning.)
Essay Topic 2
One theme of this novel is the competition between science and medicine on the one hand and religion on the other, particularly in terms of someone's physical well-being. Write an essay that describes the theme of sickness, health, and wellness (in terms of both the physical as well as the emotional/mental) that takes into account Hawthorne's dramatizing of a competition between science and medicine.
Essay Topic 3
One major set of symbols in this work has to do with an interplay of the supernatural and the natural, both of which express various emotions or meanings at particular times in the book. Incorporating at least three examples from each category (three examples of the natural and three of the supernatural), define these concepts in terms of Hawthorne's novel, and interpret your examples in a comparative manner to show how they function in helping Hawthorne's narrator tell this story.
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This section contains 1,059 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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