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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 Hester threaten to do at the end of Chapter 14?

2. Dimmesdale learns that he is preach what important sermon?

3. Who, in the procession, "exhibited such energy as was seen in the gait and air"?

4. What had Dimmesdale been doing to himself?

5. What does Chillingworth say in Chapter 14 the town council has been debating?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why, at the end of the book, is Hester making a baby garment?

3. What does Pearl do with the seaweed she finds, and what does it show about her as a character?

4. Why does Hester say that Dimmesdale should travel somewhere, "whether in some remote village or in vast London, [...] in Germany, in France," etc?

5. Why does Hester's heart sink when she sees Dimmesdale in the procession during the public holiday?

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

7. Where does Dimmesdale go at the beginning of Chapter 12, and why?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Offer a compare and contrast essay about the two major male characters in this book, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. Be sure to include analytical description of their looks and physical aspects, their emotional states, their motivations, and their conduct.

Essay Topic 2

The story starts with a mystery - the scrap of scarlet cloth Hawthorne finds in the Custom House - and builds narrative tension around an even greater mystery having to do with Pearl's parentage and Chillingworth's discovery. Describe the way "mystery" works in this novel: how and why does Hawthorne reveal or withhold key information from the reader?

Essay Topic 3

Hypocrisy emerges as a major theme of this book. Pick a set of examples (such as one or two of the major characters, or specific chapters/settings/events) that demonstrate the forms of hypocrisy Hawthorne saw in Puritan life, and write an essay that explains them in terms of Hawthorne's criticism of such hypocrisy.

(see the answer keys)

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