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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 mean when she says "Thou shalt not go alone" at the end of Chapter 17?

2. Whom does Hester decide to seek out for a meeting at the end of Chapter 13?

3. Whom does Dimmesdale call up to join him in front of everyone?

4. When Hester exclaims "better he had died at once!," to whom is she referring in Chapter 14?

5. How is Hibbins related to the Governor?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 13, Hawthorne says that some people would think that Hester's scarlet letter stands for "Able." Why?

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

3. In Chapter 14, why is Chillingworth in the woods?

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

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

6. Why does Chillingworth attempt to stop Hester and Pearl from joining Dimmesdale on the scaffold?

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

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

9. When Dimmesdale refuses to travel and quit his post as minister, how does Hester change his mind?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Specific colors play a role in telling the story, especially the colors red and black. While "red" is manifested in the scarlet letter (and other symbolic objects), "black" often remains a metaphorical color in this novel. Write an analytical essay that examines Hawthorne's use of these colors, in terms of metaphor as well as literal meaning in the novel.

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

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.

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