Name: _________________________          Date: __________ Class: _______

 

Chapters 1-4

Reading Check:

 

1.                  What kind of spectacle have the town’s people of Boston gathered to witness?

2.                  What is the significance of the scarlet A which is embroidered on Hester’s gown?

3.                  What particularly seems to disturb the stranger at the edge of the crowd after he has learned of the sentence imposed on Hester?

4.                  Why does Hester at first resist Chillingworth’s attempts to give the baby medicine?

5.                  What promise does Chillingworth exact from Hester?

 

First Thoughts

 

1.                  In your opinion does the punishment that Hester Prynne has received fit her crime? Explain.

 

Shaping Interpretations

 

1.                  How do most of the townspeople regard the severity of Hester’s punishments?

2.                  Hester thinks of her childhood home as she stands on the scaffold. What does this glimpse of her past suggest about her family background?

3.                  What clues to the identity of the stranger does Hawthorne provide in the first three paragraphs of Chapter 3?

4.                  In what way, according to Reverend Dimmesdale, can Hester help her unknown lover atone for his sin?

5.                  How does Reverend Wilson interpret the baby’s response may have?

6.                  At what point do you suspect that Chillingworth is Hester’s husband? At what point are you certain? Cite the passages.

7.                  What reasons does Chillingsworth give for not seeking vengeance against Hester?