1. Where Does the Story Take Place?

Chapter 1

1. Where does the story take place?

2. Where are the bearded men standing?

3. How is the prison described?

4. What one plant is different from the other plants around the prison?

Chapter 2

1. Why is the crowd’s attention focused on the prison door?

2. How has Hester chosen to make the scarlet “A” that she wears?

3. How do the people in the crowd react to Hester’s scarlet letter?

4. Where do Hester and her husband live before coming to America?

Chapter 3

1. Why is Hester not executed for her crime?

2. What information does Hester refuse to divulge?

3. What statement does the stranger whom Hester recognizes make three times?

4. What does Hester state that her child will never know?

5. What does Reverend Dimmesdale say about Hester’s “woman’s heart”?

Chapter 4

1. What does Hester fear that Chillingworth might do to her and her baby?

2. Why does Chillingworth not seek to punish Hester?

3. What wrong does Chillingworth believe he has done to Hester?

Chapter 5

1. What sort of clothes does Hester normally wear?

2. What are Hester’s two reasons for remaining in Boston?

3. Though the Puritans mostly wore simple black clothes, on what occasions does the

narrator say that they wore more elaborate and decorative clothing?

4. How is Hester treated by clergymen, children, and strangers?

Chapter 6

1. What one troublesome personality trait does Pearl have?

2. How does Pearl try to relate to people other than her mother?

3. What kinds of imaginative playmates does Pearl create for herself?

Chapter 7

1. What item of clothing does Hester make for Governor Bellingham?

2. In what sort of clothes does Hester dress Pearl?

3. For what object does Pearl cry?

Chapter 8

1. What does Hester say is the source of the lessons in morality that she gives to Pearl?

2. How do the men respond to Pearl’s answers to their questions?

3. Does Hester succeed in being able to keep Pearl?

4. How does Chillingworth say that a careful person might discern the identity of Pearl’s

father?

Chapter 9

1. How do Dimmesdale’s parishioners respond when Chillingworth decides to share

lodgings with Dimmesdale?

2. On whom does Chillingworth devote most of his attention and scrutiny?

3. How do Chillingworth and Dimmesdale spend their time together?

Chapter 10

1. On what subject do Dimmesdale and Chillingworth talk in this chapter?

2. What do Dimmesdale and Chillingworth doubt that Pearl is capable of?

3. Who does Pearl say has a hold of the minister’s heart?

4. What causes Chillingworth to have “a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror”?

Chapter 11

1. How does Chillingworth’s behavior toward Dimmesdale now change?

2. How does Dimmesdale feel about the way his parishioners treat him?

3. According to the narrator, what prevents Dimmesdale from becoming a great man?

4. How does Dimmesdale punish himself?

Chapter 12

1. Who hears Dimmesdale’s cry of pain?

2. Why are Hester, Pearl, and Chillingworth out at night?

3. What does Pearl ask Dimmesdale to do?

4. What light reveals the three people standing upon the scaffold?

Chapter 13

1. With what title has the World’s Heavy Hand “ordained” Hester?

2. Why does Hester feel responsible for Dimmesdale’s condition?

3. What does Hester resolve to do regarding her former husband?

Chapter 14

1. How does Hester respond to Chillingworth’s news about the magistrate’s decision?

2. What favor does Chillingworth think he has done for Dimmesdale?

3. According to Hester, what has hatred done to Chillingworth?

Chapter 15

1. What has Pearl been doing while Hester and Chillingworth talk?

2. How does Pearl decorate her bosom?

3. What lie does Hester tell to Pearl?

Chapter 16

1. What does Hester try to grasp that disappears when she does?

2. What story had an old woman told to Pearl?

3. Who does Pearl think approaches her and Hester in the forest?

Chapter 17

1. How does Dimmesdale feel about the “good work” that he does in the community?

2. What reason does Dimmesdale have for saying that Hester is “happy” (lucky)?

3. Why does Hester feel responsible for a “deep injury” that she has done to

Dimmesdale?

4. What does Hester say to Dimmesdale that changes his mind about the possibility of

leaving Boston?

Chapter 18

1. What causes Dimmesdale to have hope and joy?

2. What action of Hester makes her appear young and beautiful once more?

3. What has Pearl been doing in the forest?

Chapter 19

1. According to Dimmesdale, how do children normally behave around him?

2. What causes Pearl to howl and shriek?

3. What does Hester have to do to get Pearl finally to agree to join Hester and

Dimmesdale on the other side of the brook?

4. How does Pearl treat Dimmesdale when Hester asks Pearl to seek the minister’s

blessing?

Chapter 20

1. Where do Dimmesdale and Hester plan to go in the next few days?

2. What does Dimmesdale plan to do in his Election Day sermon?

3. How has the meeting with Hester changed Dimmesdale?

4. What does Mistress Hibbins say that Dimmesdale has been doing in the forest?

5. What does Dimmesdale refuse to accept from Chillingworth?

Chapter 21

1. Why have Hester and Pearl gone into town three days after their forest meeting with

Dimmesdale?

2. Why does Pearl call Dimmesdale a “strange, sad man”?

3. What does the narrator say that his contemporary New Englanders are still ignorant

of?

4. What news does the ship captain have for Hester?

Chapter 22

1. As he walks into the meeting house, what effect does Dimmesdale have on Hester?

2. How does Pearl behave when she sees Hester’s reaction to the minister’s passing by?

3. Who does what no one else in Boston would do and strike up a public conversation

with Hester?

4. What message is Pearl told to take to her mother?

5. Why does Hester become a center of public attention?

Chapter 23

1. What do Dimmesdale’s parishioners infer from his sermon?

2. What symbol do some people see on Dimmesdale’s chest?

3. What does Pearl finally accept from Dimmesdale?

4. How does Dimmesdale’s confession affect Chillingworth?

5. How does Dimmesdale die?

6. Of the four main characters in the novel, only one never ascends the scaffold. Who is it?

Chapter 24

1. Did everyone who watched Dimmesdale’s confession on the platform see the same thing?

2. How long does Chillingworth live after Dimmesdale’s death?

3. Whom does Chillingworth name in his will as heir to his property?

4. After her return to Boston, what does Hester do with her scarlet letter?

5. What new role does Hester occupy after her return to Boston?