The Scarlet Letter summary study guide analysis

 

 

 

The Scarlet Letter summary study guide analysis

 

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The Scarlet Letter summary study guide analysis

The Scarlet Letter
Terms
Allegory– a narrative in which objects, persons, and actions in the story are symbolic and have meanings that lie outside the narrative itself
Epigraph– an inscription on a building or statue; a motto or quotation setting forth a theme
Frame story/Framework narrative– a story within a narrative setting or framework; story within a story
              -Example: the Customs house is the frame story
-The youngest person whose worked at the customs house for the shortest amount of time is fired, even though the rest of the workers are lazy and don’t do anything
                           -He finds a tattered “A” in the attic along with papers on Hester while at his job
                           -Once he gets fired, he decides to write a book
Microcosm – a world in miniature that epitomizes the larger one
              -In the book, Boston is the microcosm of the Puritan colony
Novel – a work that aims to be realistic
              -The author works from observed facts of life towards his truths
              -A novel must have verisimilitude
Retrospective plot– a plot where the major event took place before the novel begins
              -The whole story is about the events of the novel thrust into action by this major event
              -The events of the novel occur in response to this major action that already happened.
              -In the novel, Hester has already had her affair and her baby
Romance– a work concerned with the truths of the “human heart”
              -It connects with a by-gone era, a time in the past, through the imagination
              -It begins with truths and uses the facts of the story to illustrate these truths
              -It doesn’t aim to be realistic
              -It carries a moral at the end
Satire– a worth that ridicules human institutions or the foibles of individuals or mankind to inspire improvement or remodeling
Symbols/symbolism– something that has meaning in and of itself, but that points to another meaning outside itself
Theocracy– a commonwealth or state under a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler
-God’s laws are interpreted by religious authorities
-run by priests claiming divine commission
Verisimilitude– the appearance of truth in a work to make it seem believable
              -It’s achieved in presenting details in such a way to make them appear to be true
              -The Scarlet Letter is not realistic, but it seems truthful à It has verisimilitude
Ambivalent– indecisive 
Patriarchal– based on the power of males
Mutability – subject to change
Ostensible – perceived, apparent, superficial
Peril – danger or risk
Pall – cloth that covers a coffin

About the Novel
Why did Hawthorne set his romance in the Puritan era?

• He wanted to evoke the era of the 1st generation of Puritan settlers who hoped to establish a “City on a Hill,” a community of faith surrounded by a moral wilderness. To ensure their success, the Puritans adhered to strict laws of conduct and demanded conformity of its citizens
• To evoke Boston in the 17th century during the 1st generation of settlement, Hawthorne compresses the time into a few years
• He creates a settlement that was isolated so that it would be a microcosm of the world
• The Puritans of the 17th century thought in pre-scientific ways. They believed in witchcraft, magic, and other supernatural phenomena.
• Hawthorne used this magical world to heighten the effect and to show that the Puritans saw their existence in purely symbolic ways (typology)
• Hawthorne was personally interested in the Puritans because he felt they had left an indelible mark on the character of America

What did the Puritans believe?

• Scripture provides guidelines to the way individuals, government, and church should behave.
• Human beings were put on earth to honor God and follow God’s calling.
• Human nature is evil and only God’s grace can save us from damnation (Doctrines of the depravity of man and covenant of grace)
• The community has a responsibility to punish sinners harshly for the good of their souls

Hawthorne criticizes the Puritans by looking at them through 19th century eyes:

• These Puritans seldom talk of God
• “Providence” in the novel is used differently from the way the Puritans used the term
• There are no biblical references
• There are no references to grace and the elect
• The Puritans didn’t believe in public confession

The Story
The 1st 8 chapters are about the Puritan community and Chapters 8-12 are about Chillingworth and Dimmesdale:
-The community is represented Governor Bellingham, Wilson, and the mass of Puritans
-Nobody is distinguished from the mass of Puritans to emphasize that they’re all conformed and there’s no individuality
-Their mission was to find the father
-By the end of chapter 8, Wilson says that they’ll leave it up to “providence” (=God) and leave Hester alone to live her life, and instead, Chillingworth takes up the mission of finding the dad.
Chapter 1

• The man-made landscape emphasizes the depravity of man: man is sinful and not redeemable

-It’s somber, depressing, heavy, dark, gloomy, and oppressive
-1st thing they build was a cemetery and jail: all bout death and sin
-Buildings and people are sad-colored
-Focused on sin and punishment

• The prison-door seems older than anything else in the New World

-This suggests that crime and punishment have been around for longer than anything
-For the Puritans, crime and sin are essential in society

• These Puritans are different from the original settling Puritans

-Winthrop was all about Christian love, virtue, and happiness: the Christian God is a god of love and forgiveness
-Now: they are all about punishment sorrow, and sin
-Hawthorne says that Winthrop and the original Puritans had hoped for a Utopia
-However, utopia means “no place” and is impossible to achieve
- This society is the opposite of utopian perfection

• Rosebush represents Hester: wild and beautiful

-How it emerged:

• It was leftover from a time before when land was all forests
• It sprang from Anne Hutchinson’s footsteps- she had been a prisoner who was ahead of her time. She tried to give women more power in a patriarchal society and argued that people don’t need ministers for a relationship with God.

-The language conveys:
-It is precious and valuable: its flowers are “gems”
-It is “wild” – natural and not associated with man (unlike the man-made Puritan landscape)
-Nature is kind and sympathetic and has a heart – opposite of the Puritans
-The language also shows bias on the part of the narrator:
-Calls Anne Hutchinson “sainted” which is ironic (for the puritans, the elect or the chosen were sainted and Anne was considered a sinner) and shows his sympathies lie with her, not the Puritans.

• The story is all about human weakness and human sorrow

-At the end of the chapter, we are at the threshold of the story, like the prisoner who is about to come out
-Hawthorne says he hopes we learn a moral lesson and are refreshed by it
Chapter 2

• Marketplace: represents the Puritan’s safe place where order resides: center of town where nothing is hidden

              -The town is gathered outside the prison door, waiting for the sinner

• The people are just like the buildings:

              -Chapter 1 is about the dismal, man-made landscape (the prison, the cemetery)
-Chapter 2 is about the grim, rigid, petrified (=hard like stone) people

• The community is messed up:

-Society is very black and white: they have no distinction between the degrees of sin and punishment
-Everyone is treated the same
-They’re trying to legislate morality: merging moral issues with civic laws
-Breaking a civil law is equivalent to breaking a moral law
-Treating Hester’s sin as bad as murder
-The whole town is gathered as if they’re waiting for a huge criminal and were as serious as witnessing a hanging
-Puritans judge things that shouldn’t be judged
-The scaffold is part of a system of punishment to promote good citizenship
-The scaffold is a platform where people were usually hanged
             -The men are above the scaffold, passing judgment on her

• Conveys conformity in a crowd of women

*They’re both murderers who terrorize people into conforming
-They’re like a machine – system of oppression: squelching individuality

• Hester comes out radiant: she’s passionate and spirited

              -Her sin was a sin of passion- she’s associated with passion, love, and red  
-The crowd expected her to come out somber and sorrowful
-She made her dress especially for the occasion – from her “fancy” which means imagination
-She yanks her arm away from the beadle when he tries to escort her
-Associated with wildness and nature- she’s the rosebush in the midst of Puritan wasteland
-She looks like Holy Mary- sacred image of sinfulness
-criticism of puritans: they’re being so hard on a young woman with a new baby
-The crowd just stares down at her: she’d rather be mocked because she would’ve been able to scorn back

• To deal with standing walking to the scaffold, she zones out and thinks about the past

-Her past generations were part of the nobility- she’s refined and of a higher class à different from the “country women”
-Wealth was in land, and over time, her family’s wealth (aka their land) was parceled up over generations à her family was poor
-Because you needed a dowry for marriage and they couldn’t afford one, she had to marry an old scholarly man
-He could look into people’s souls
-He was deformed (uneven shoulders) à associated with evil and the devil
Chapter 3

• 1 of the 3 scaffold scenes
• A strange man shows up who turns out to be Hester’s husband. We find out he’s been living with the Indians for a year, raising questions on why he left Hester alone.
• Roger Chillingworth = Hester’s husband

              -He’s dressed as the Indians: been living with them for a year
-She immediately recognized him because of his deformity
-He’s not interested in outside appearances: he reads inside people’s souls
-he’s keen, penetrative, and like a snake
-when he first sees her, a flash of hatred and powerful emotion crosses his face, but he hides it
-He warns her don’t tell anyone
-He had intellect and scholarship à was also cold and unsympathetic
-We learn more about their history:
-She settled for marrying an older, ugly man because her family was poor
-After they got married, he sent her ahead of him to New England and stayed in England and promised to come in 2 years. But she never heard from him
-His mission is to find the father of Hester’s child
              -He’s reborn from Roger Prynne to Roger Chillingworth
-Now he’s motivated by evil

• The Puritans are very legalistic

-They dig out iniquity (wickedness) and put it out in the sunshine
-It’s not legally adultery because they figured her husband must be dead
-This is the only reason she’s not sentenced to death
-This is their idea of mercy and tenderness

• Hester will be a “living sermon” against sin

-She has to stand on the scaffold for 3 hours while Wilson lectures about sin

• Governor Bellingham:

-He’s mature and fit for a community with little imagination and hope
-He’s not fit to judge Hester – have no sympathy

• John Wilson: clergyman of Boston and a scholar

-He put his intellect over his potential to be kind
-He cultivated reason, not his heart
-He’s serious and somber like a portrait: he doesn’t have the right to be passing judgment on her

• Dimmesdale: father of Hester’s child

-He’s highly regarded in the community
-He’s got potential to become a church leader
-He’s very fluent, striking, with melancholy eyes
-He naturally has a lot of passion and emotions, but he suppresses it
*He’s a conflicted character
-His voice has a musical quality that goes to the heart of the audience

• Dimmesdale has to interrogate Hester about the father

-John Wilson asks Dimmesdale to interrogate Hester about the father and he’s like don’t make her tell everyone in broad daylight
-When he speaks to Hester, he puts all the responsibility on her
-Reveal the name if you want to be saves and relieve your suffering. Don’t stay quiet out of pity for him. Your ignominy is public and open which is better for you. You’re denying him the ability to start the process of healing and repentance. I’m not courageous, and I can’t do it on my own.
-After Hester refuses to reveal the name and protects his identity, he gasps for breath because he’s been spared: he’s very grateful and says she’s wonderful and generous
Chapter 4

• They send a physician (Chillingworth) to see Hester because they’re afraid she’ll hurt the baby or herself. He uses herbs that he picked up from the Indians.
• Roger Chillingworth: cold hearted

-She’s in shock when she sees him and is afraid he’ll poison her or her baby
-He doesn’t want to kill her: wants her to live so she can really suffer in shame
-He’s not as kind as he appears
-seems as if he’s talking the blame for her sin, but he doesn’t forgive her
-He says it was his own folly: he was a fool to think he could make a young woman happy- he’s old and deformed and should have seen it coming.
-Hester says that she was honest with him and never faked her love
-He compares his heart to a chamber:
-He brought her into her heart and wanted her to warm him
-It was her responsibility to bring him human warmth
-He has her in a position of guilt so she’ll do anything – he plays with her and tries to manipulate the name of the father out of Hester
-He makes her promise to keep his identity a secret
-He blackmails her: if she reveals his secret, he’ll reveal hers
-He would suffer dishonor and would be a cuckled man
Chapter 5

• Why does she stay?

-There’s no clause in her punishment that requires her to stay
-She could be reborn with a new identity, or move to the west and the forest, where should would feel more at home without the limits and rules of Puritan civilization
-She chooses to stay in a position of shame
-Her sin rooted her to the place: its part of her life
-humans tend to stay in the place where some huge event happened, especially a tragic one
-Even though she had a happy infancy, she doesn’t want to go home to England because it seemed foreign to her
-She felt connected to the father of her child
-Suppressed her hope that they’ll be connected at the final judgment because she was trying not to get her hopes up
-She hopes that her suffering would purge her soul

• Where does she stay?

-A cottage on the outskirts on the edge of the wilderness
-Symbolic: she’s an outsider – part of the community but still rejected and scorned
-She chooses the house herself: not rejecting her passion

• How is she integrated in society?

-She’s a great seamstress and starts trends that others followed
-She’s the object of their scorn, but they like what she produces because it’s exquisite
-Hypocritical and ironic
-She dresses in plain clothes and is very Spartan
-But her child is the object of her own creativity
-She gives all her excess to charity

• How is she rejected by society?

-She’s treated like an outsider and shunned
-They use her as a living sermon: teach and preach about her
-Women were mean to her, children pointed at her and were scared by her, and even the poor rejected her
-She takes it quietly, but she refuses to pray for her enemies
-Her agony continues to grow – she doesn’t get used to it

• Even though she’s an outsider, she has insight into the human condition

-Her own sin allows her to see everyone’s hidden sins, imperfections, and hypocrisies
-A legend evolved that the scarlet A was red-hot with infernal fire – part of the romance novel (its fantasy but we believe it in context of the story)
Chapter 6
All about PEARL:

• Pearl stands for freedom and is connected to the rosebush

-she is a beautiful flower sprung from guilty passion
-she’s not clad in weeds like the Puritan society
-She’s like nature: innocent, untamed
-Born outside the law and resists rules

• She’s named Pearl because she is Hester’s only treasure: Hester has paid her life for this child
• She is beautiful

-She’s radiant

• She’s compared to a woodland creature, an imp

-mischievous; live in woods

• She’s an external representation of Hester’s inner life (her thoughts and feelings)

-She inherited her mom’s spirit and passion
-She’s feisty
-The little Puritan kids see that the mom and child aren’t conformed and revile them – Pearl responds by throwing stones at them
-She’s out of control:
-Hester can see herself in her child’s eyes

• She’s a symbol of sin

-She’s at odds with Puritan society

• Source of comfort (she’s not alone) and anguish (reminds her of her deed)
• She changes a lot: capricious, inconsistent, mutability
• She’s imaginative and perceptive:

-creates imaginary friends and plays by herself
-picks up the issue of the lack of a father

• The fear of the woods:

-The woods were unsafe, wild, trouble, lawless, irregularity, and freedom without boundaries
-The Puritans are surrounded by it: they need predictability and conformity
-Civilization was ordered and safe
-Hester is on the border between Puritan society and the wilderness
Chapter 7

• Hester goes to the Governor’s house:     1) to give him a pair of gloves he requested

                                                                           2) to confront him about the Puritans taking away her child
-They think the child should be removed because:
-If she’s a demon, Hester will be tainted by her
-If she’s good, then Pearl should be placed under proper care so she’s not corrupted by Hester

• Pearl is a living embodiment of the A

              -Hester dresses her up in red à Pearl is the channel in which she can express her creativity
-she stands apart from the other kids
-Hester emphasizes the link between the child (object of her affection) and the A (object of guilt)
-Pearl is a constant reminder of Hester’s sin, just like the A

• Pearl is fearless and defiant, screaming at the puritan kids who threw mud at her

              *She exemplifies the emotions that Hester suppresses

• The A is all that Hester can see in the breastplate of the armor à It’s her identity now
• Governor Bellingham represents the Puritan magistrates

*He’s trying to recreate what he left behind in England by trying to make his home look like England
**This has deeper significance:
*****Puritans left England for tolerance and religious freedom. However, the Puritans are imposing intolerance and religious persecution, the very things they escaped*****
-This is ironic and hints that their society might not be able to hold up
-This warning is embodied by Hester and the rosebush, the rebellious characters

• The garden:

-Bellingham tried to set up a decorative garden (ornamental gardens just for beauty) like in England, but it was hard to do and didn’t succeed. The gardener finally gave up hope.
-Puritans can’t grow the same crops as England on American soil. Only food like cabbages grew. Rosebushes survived as well, representing freedom.
***Even though they came to America to establish a new order, they keep the old order of oppression and no religious freedom***
*The values and properties of the New World are different à the Puritans recreate the Old World in the New World because it won’t work
*This implies that the Puritan society itself is not working out and will fall apart

• Governor Bellingham had been a lawyer but was forced to go to war out of necessity

              *Another reminder that this utopia isn’t working out
Chapter 8

• Criticism of the patriarchs of society:

-They follow their own rules and like luxury items
-Puritans make decisions about people’s personal lives, but they have no right to do this

• Hester fights to keep Pearl:

-The Puritans want the child to be raised as a good Puritan
-When Wilson asks Pearl who made her, she says she was plucked from a rosebush à they’re horrified
-She says that she can teach Pearl all the lessons that she’s learned from the A
-Pearl is Hester’s only reason for living
-She puts the focus on herself, saying that God gave her to me and she gives me happiness

• Hester appeals to Dimmesdale

-Dimmesdale is more emaciated, wane, and pale
-Hester knows that the other men are poor judges of the heart because they’re heartless, but Dimmesdale has some humanity and passion
-Dimmesdale takes Hester’s side:
-He says that something beautiful has come out of her sin
-God has sent her to help Hester, and she will be a constant reminder of her sin which is evident even by her scarlet clothing
-If Hester raises the child as a good Christian, then the child could save the mother
-His sympathy and ability to touch people’s hearts is due to his suffering and guilt – he’s committing a sin of deceit
-Wilson agrees and says let’s forget about it and let God handle it – we’ll leaving it up to God to reveal the father

• Mistress Hibbins-

-She was a real historical figure à adds to the verisimilitude
-She’s the local witch and invites Hester to a witch gathering in the woods (=wildness)
-She recognizes that Hester doesn’t fit in and sees things differently
-Hester says no because she has to take care of Pearl
***If Pearl was taken away from her, she would’ve given up and conformed into the Puritan world (witchcraft was part of the Puritan system) à Pearl helps her see that the Puritan community is limited and keeps her tethered and grounded

• Mistress Hibbins sees herself in the wrong and accepts that she’s different and eccentric. She sees the world the way the Puritans see it. She’s conformed to their worldview that anyone different and individual is bad.

Chapter 9

• Chillingworth has been reborn with dark motives – to punish the sinner (=the father)

-His old self dies because he didn’t want to be shamed and suffer with her
-His new motives are the only thing keeping him alive
-He is immediately accepted into the Puritan community because he’s a doctor and they don’t have many doctors
-He attaches himself to Dimmesdale and literally sucks the life out of him with guilt

• As a scholar, Chillingworth should be looking for absolute truth

-But he’s corrupted this search for truth and shifted his emphasis to punishing the father

• The town sees Chillingworth as a blessing sent from God

-He seems to be a qualified doctor: they don’t ask questions
-They weave stories about him
-But meanwhile, Dimmesdale gets worse
-Dimmesdale tries to gently reject any medical help because he knows it’s an issue of guilt, of confessing and coming out clean, not an issue of medicine
-Yet his reputation keeps rising

• Chapter 9 is all about how the Puritans twist reality to fit their perception
• Chillingworth is fascinated by Dimmesdale

-He looks into Dimmesdale’s soul to find out his secret

• Dimmesdale is fascinated by Chillingworth

-Chillingworth is an intellectual à has freedom of thought: doesn’t have to stick to what the Puritans believe
-Dimmesdale sticks to the Puritan system of beliefs; he’s caught in it and it gets worse over time
-WINDOW: symbol of another way of looking at the world
-It allows you to see the world through different eyes.
-Fresh air represents fresh and new ideas, where people aren’t depraved.
-Looking at the world through Chillingworth’s eyes gives Dimmesdale a break. But the fresh air always gets too fresh and chill, and his instinct draws him back to the conservative standard Puritan beliefs.
***Shows Dimmesdale is conflicted and troubled (as a result: physically wasting away)
-Chillingworth and Dimmesdale have conversations in the woods and on the seashore = wild, nature, freedom
*Dimmesdale flirts with the outside world but then comes back

• Another group of Puritans saw Chillingworth as sent by the devil

-They started seeing things differently than the other Puritans who thought he was sent by God
à Shows that even when you try to impose conformity, different opinions emerge
-They had no evidence, but they could tell something was wrong with this guy
***Chillingworth has gone through a physical change: gotten uglier, more deformed à as he preys on Dimmesdale, he deteriorates himself

• The community bends that story and manipulates the fact to get the outcome they want:

-They change the story: God sent Chillingworth as a devil to make Dimmesdale’s life difficult, in order to wage a battle between good and sin. They’re convinced Dimmesdale will win.
-But in the meantime, Dimmesdale is getting destroyed
Chapter 10

• Chillingworth is deteriorated and corrupted by his obsession with punishing Dimmesdale

-He used to be calm and in search of truth

• Dimmesdale can’t recognize that Chillingworth is a foe because he is suspicious of everyone. He’s cut off from the world by his distrust, and it makes him blind. He misinterprets Chillingworth’s actions as kind.
• Chillingworth is pressing Dimmesdale to confess and Dimmesdale is defending himself, but they do this objectively, not personally.

• The conversation begins when Chillingworth is picking herbs from an unmarked tombstone and says that the black weeds grew from the dead man’s heart because he took a secret to the grave.
• Dimmesdale says that maybe he couldn’t confess
• Chillingworth: well why not? Why would you hide your sin? Why not get rid of it now?
• Dimmesdale: Well there’s no power forcing you to confess. The heart has the tendency to hold on to its secrets until Judgment Day. A lot of people do confess: he listens to confessions all the time. Yet some people hold in their secrets, maybe because they want to keep it quiet.
• OR THEY DON’T WANT TO DISPLAY THEMSELVES TO BE SINFUL BECAUSE NOTHING THEY DO AFTERWARDS WILL BE CONSIDERED GOOD, AND THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO SERVE THEIR COMMUNITY
• **This reflects the Puritan idea of salvation. They believed that you can’t earn salvation; it depends on the grace of God. If you’re one of the elect, you’re good and can’t sin. But if you sin, then you can’t be good because nothing good comes from something bad.
• Hester will think outside this box: Pearl, who is the result of her sin, is a blessing.
• Chillingworth: Let them serve their fellow man by telling the truth. Men are lying to themselves if they believe that they’re serving God and their community by hiding their secrets.

• Hester and Pearl walk by after this conversation à they are FOILs to Dimmesdale

*Hester has not hidden her sin: she’s put it out in public and has dealt with it
*Pearl represents the freedom of a broken law
-She sees right through to the truth of things and operates outside the Puritan worldview. She immediately sees that Chillingworth is evil.

• One day, when Dimmesdale is so tired that he completely passes out in a deep sleep, Chillingworth sneaks up on him and looks at his heart.

-He sees something that makes him really happy and wondrous. Hawthorne doesn’t tell us what he sees, but it confirms that Dimmesdale is the guilty sinner and father of Pearl. It’s probably a branded A.
Chapter 11

• Chillingworth changes: now he has a plan, a plot full of malice

-He’s so subtle that even though Dimmesdale feels like there’s something evil watching over him, he can’t pinpoint it on Chillingworth

• As Dimmesdale suffers more, his reputation and fame rises

-He is an extraordinary speaker:
-Other ministers can’t compare to him
-His own emotions and feelings that come from within him make him even more human. He recognizes his own flaws and connects with the people he serves.
-Puritan members of the community want to be buried next to him; yet he fears that nothing will grow on his grave because he’s rotten and terrible.
-Doesn’t confess because: He will do more good for the community by hiding his sin
-The more they revered him, the more he suffered

• Dimmesdale goes through the motions of confessing àhe tells the people what he was (a sinner), not what he did

-He doesn’t tell the whole truth
**His life has become a sham à If you live a life of lies, nothing has meaning

• He tries to make up for his guilt by: fasting, meditating, whipping himself
• He has visions but he never lost his sense between reality and his hallucinations

Chapter 12

• 2nd scaffold scene

-Hawthorne recreates the scene: replays all the characters
-Midnight vs. noontide (1st scene)
-Dimmesdale is trying to put himself in Hester’s position. But at the end, he goes back home with Chillingworth, revealing that he is still stuck in the Puritan belief system

• Dimmesdale is totally obscured by the darkness, so nobody could see him. à He likes this, which is a clue that he just wants to go through the motions of confessing
• “Mockery of penitence” – it’s an imitation or ridicule of Hester’s punishment, the punishment he should have suffered as well
• Dimmesdale has many occasions where he has a choice: to confess or not

-He feels like he needs to confess, but he’s too cowardly

• Governor Bellingham represents society and civil values, law, and duty

-He has the chance to say something to him, but he cowers

• Mistress Hibbins represents going over to the evil side

-He rejects turning to evil as a result of his sin

• Wilson represents religious society and possibility of salvation

-He has another chance to come clean but he is too weak

• Pearl and Hester represent hope for redemption.

-Dimmesdale could get his life back in he accepts them. He would be made holy, happy, and strong if he confessed. They’ve given him life.
-Pearl laughs and tries to pull away because she sees a coward when she looks at Dimmesdale.
-When Pearl asks him to stand on the scaffold at noon with the 2 of them, he says no à rejection of the opportunity to come clean and feel rejuvenated

• Winthrop dies à death of the 1st generation of Puritans

-These Puritans are a new breed: they are oppressive and obsessed with sin and punishment

• Meteor:

-The universe would send signs to show its sympathy for humans
-This sign singles out that Dimmesdale is a coward, not a hero. It’s condemning him for not accepting responsibility.

• He sees the scarlet A in the sky and thinks it’s about him: he’s egotistical. Others saw it and thought it stood for “angel” because Winthrop died.
• He goes home with Chillingworth at the end.
• The sexton found Dimmesdale’s glove on the scaffold, but he says Satan probably dropped it there.

-He creates another reality because he can’t imagine that Dimmesdale would be sinful

 

Motifs and Themes
The Puritan perspective:
-The Puritans pride themselves in having the only right perspective.
-They believe that they could see inside people
-However, their perspective is skewed and limited.
-They can’t distinguish between appearance and reality
-They remain ignorant to the truth if it doesn’t match their perception
-They bend the story to make it fit what they perceive and misinterpret signs
              -Examples:
1) While on the scaffold, Hester would look like the Virgin Mary to a stranger
-She’s the opposite: she’s not innocent, she’s a sinner
2) At the governor’s hall, the bondservant thinks Hester is a great lady
-He doesn’t know that she is scorned and looked down on
3) The Puritans think Chillingworth was sent by God to help Dimmesdale
-Chillingworth is making him worse, not better
4) The Puritans see Dimmesdale as a good and holy person who could never sin
-He sinned along with Hester and is sinning even more every day by not revealing himself as the father
-If he’s going die, then it’s because he’s too good for this world
5) They see Pearl as a demon, so they interpret everything she did as evil
6) They see Hester as conformed à she is very radical on the inside

Appearance vs. Reality

• Dimmesdale:

-Appearance: seems holy, devout, pure
-Reality: is a huge sinner

• Chillingworth:

              -Appearance: he seems kind and generous and accepting
-Reality: he isn’t the good person he seems to be

• Hester:

              -Appearance: appears somber and conformed
-Reality: she still has passion and resistance in her
-Revealed through:
-Her choice of living (cottage on outskirts) and the clothes she makes for Prynn

 

The Story (Chapter Outline)
Chapter 13

• All about Hester and how she’s changed
• The 1st part of the chapter bridges over to Hester: She notices that Chillingworth has been bearing down on Dimmesdale and tormenting him. Hester feels linked to Dimmesdale and feels responsible for his condition.

-Dimmesdale = frozen and caught in the Puritan system
-Hester = free to act as she wants

• 2 views of Hester:
• Outside view (How society perceives her): she’s totally conformed

-Society believes that she’s become virtuous like them
-She seems to live a life that’s blameless; she submits
-The A became known to mean “Able” because of her strength
-When greeted in the street, Hester wouldn’t respond à they interpreted this as humility, but it may have been due to pride
-The public is like a despot = if demands are too much, it’ll repress; but if demands are just right, it’ll reward
-Society was kinder to her (due to their belief that she’s conformed like them) than she cared or deserved
**Clue: She doesn’t want their approval and is undeserving of their approval because she has not really changed
-Connection to rosebush: she appears to be wilting and losing her passion
-She’s a shadow of her former self
-Her hair isn’t rich and luxuriant, and her face is cold like marble

• Inside view (What she really thinks): she’s radical

-She’s focused on intellectual thought over emotions:
-She’s more contemplative, speculative, and thoughtful.
-She’s no longer bound by Puritan laws.
-This was an age of revolution of thought: new ideas are coming into the world from Europe and are affecting politics, social classes, economics, philosophy, etc.
             *The Puritans would have seen these ideas as worse than committing adultery
**Hester expands her world view and is unconnected and untethered à she has freedom of thought
*She has no restrictions, no boundaries
***People with the most radical thoughts can appear to be the most conformed
Hester starts thinking about the role of women
-She thinks of a 3-step process for equality:
1) Tear down the existing social structure
2) Change the men: change the very essence of what they’re like
3) Change the women: must go through a stronger change
*She’s calling for equality of men and women, a complete change of Puritan society, which is hierarchical and patriarchal
***She’s a woman of the 19th century: she is out of place and time
Hawthorne is telling this to his 19th century audience at a time of issues of women’s rights.

• For someone like Hester whose suppresses all passion, this passion can come back at any moment

**Clue that something will trigger Hester’s passion and she’ll return to her former self**

• “The scarlet letter had not done its office”

-It’s job was to punish her and make her conform
-But instead,it liberated her: it’s given her the power to act on her own ideas, free from Puritan thought.

• She takes it upon herself to confront Chillingworth

-Hester is the courageous, assertive, aggressive one who is empowered by the A
-Dimmesdale is the weak, cowardly wimp who has been destroyed by his guilt
Chapter 14

• All about Hester and Chillingworth’s confrontation
• Pearl sees her playful and innocent reflection à contrasts when Chillingworth sees his true self
• The council has been discussing taking off the “A”

• Chillingworth says he’s on her side, but he’s being specious (=fake)
• She says that the magistrates don’t have the authority to decide this. For them to be meddling in this is out of line.
• This raises questions about who has the power?? à certainly not the magistrates.

***Individuals decide on issues of morality, not civil leaders
-Hester is a rebel: she believes she’s free to make her own decisions

• Chillingworth has transformed himself into a “devil”

• He probes into Dimmesdale and makes him suffer
• Hester feels responsible for: (1) Dimmesdale’s suffering (2) The change in Chillingworth

• Hester tells Chillingworth that she has kept his secret, but betrayed Dimmesdale in the process.

• She feels loyal to Dimmesdale, not her husband à the law doesn’t decide where your loyalties lie- your feelings do.
• Chillingworth says she didn’t have a choice. He’s trying to make her feel better so he can continue to torture Dimmesdale.

• Chillingworth says that Dimmesdale is indebted to him.

• He can never repay him for all his care; He’s kept him alive and done all this good for him.
• However, his motives have been evil— to torture and punish

• Chillingworth sees himself for what he truly is

• He believes that Dimmesdale owes him even more because he’s sacrificed his good character to help him à It has corrupted and deformed him.
• Before, he was just a nice scholar who liked books. He wasn’t cruel.
• Hester blames herself for his transformation.

• She tells him that it is now up to him whether or not to reveal himself to Dimmesdale.

• Chillingworth says that her good character is wasted.
• Hester responds by saying that everyone is miserable and doomed to an unhappy ending except for him. He has the power to forgive and move on with his life. She tells him to let go of his anger and revenge and let God punish him.
• She can think independently – she believes that individuals have the power to change their own lives.

Chapters 15 and 16
Chapter 15:

• As Hester watches Chillingworth walk away, she is aghast at how evil and ugly he looks.

• He’s hideous and his beard drags down to the grass
• He’s so poisonous he could kill the grass

• She hates Chillingworth.

• At first, she feels guilty about hating him.
• He tricked her into marrying him and believing she was happy. She didn’t know any better because she was young and naive and he took advantage of that. She now sees that her life with him was lonely and dull.
• He would focus on his studies and ignore her.
• She has a change in mind: her crime isn’t as bad as his against her.
• DIFFERENT VIEW OF SIN: her sin came about from circumstances
• She’s free of the Puritan mentality that sinners are simply evil and their sin came about from their evilness.

• Pearl represents sympathy and expression of emotion.

• She feels bad about throwing the pebbles and hurting the birds
• She’s just as wild as nature

• Pearl is totally free of the Puritan mentality which allows her to see clearly.

• She can see a connection between Hester and Dimmesdale while the community can’t.
• She puts on a green “A” made of grass – her A is without sin or severity (It’s innocent and is without everything that the Puritan society has forced upon Hester)
• **She sees the A for what it is, not for all the symbolism that society has cast upon it**

• Pearl continually asks:

• What does the scarlet letter mean? (3x)
• Why do you wear it? (2x)
• Why does the minister keep his hand over his heart? (3x)

• As Hester reflects on Pearl’s questions, she thinks that maybe the time has come for Pearl to be trusted with Hester’s sorrows. Maybe Pearl would understand Hester’s situation if she’s ready.

• Pearl’s emotions are compared to an April breeze à fickle and changing

Chapter 16

• Chapter 16 prepares us for the meeting we’ve been waiting for
• Hester’s purpose is to inform Dimmesdale about Chillingworth’s identity
• She picks the forest:

• It’s private and away from the community, so they can be open.
• She is concerned for his reputation and well-being à she loves him
• In the forest, there is no danger to his “holy whiteness”

-whiteness = innocence and purity (public view of him)
-IRONY: it’s the opposite of the Black Man (who Pearl wonders if they’re meeting)

• “The primeval forest:”

• Opposite of civilization à CONTRAST to the Puritan community
• It reminds Hester of her “moral wilderness” – her thoughts have been wandering to new radical ideas

• The sunshine runs away from Hester
• Pearl asks if the A is a mark from the Black Man

• She heard an old lady say that it was his mark from when they met. The old lady said Mistress Hibbins also had his mark.

• The brook is personified and foreshadows the upcoming sorrow.

• Pearl hears the brook sadly mumbling.
• Unlike the brook, Pearl is unaffected by the sad life she’s been exposed to.
• The brook may be prophesizing something sad that is going to happen.

• Hester sees Dimmesdale and he exhibits no visible signs of positive and vivacious suffering, except for his hand over his heart.

• On the outside, he does not appear to be suffering.
• Does he like his life when he’s in his own privacy?
• He may not be suffering as badly while in the woods by himself.

Chapters 17 and 18

• All about Hester and Dimmesdale’s meeting in the woods.
• These chapters are a confirmation of who Hester and Dimmesdale are and reveal the gap between their 2 philosophies.

Chapter 17

• She calls him “Arthur Dimmesdale” – she’s previously called him Mr. Dimmesdale which emphasizes that it’s a patriarchal society
• At the beginning, there are moments of awkwardness.  Then they start talking about issues of the heart.

• At first, they are barely even talking – small talk about the weather
• Then Dimmesdale asks Hester if she found peace. She doesn’t answer – she’s lonely but she’s free.

• Hester is strong, in control, and has her own ideas.
• Dimmesdale is conflicted:

• He tells Hester that he’s miserable because he’s living a double life and is a hypocrite
• He sees himself as a sinner and is not even convinced he’s doing any good – it’s all a delusion.
•  He’s caught in the Puritan worldview.
• Hester tries to console him by saying that everyone reveres him and his actions should redeem him.
• Dimmesdale: how can I lead people to redemption when I have a polluted soul? I wish they would scorn me so I wouldn’t feel so guilty.
• Dimmesdale “Of penance, I had enough! Of penitence there has been none!”

-You do penance to express your penitence (=your sorrow). He’s done enough penance (starving himself, whipping himself., etc.) but he’s not sorry(penitence).

• Hester tells Dimmesdale that Chillingworth is her husband and has been an enemy this whole time. She feels terrible. Dimmesdale gets really mad at her.

• He said his heart warned him, but he ignored it. He then blames all his suffering on her. He says that he can’t forgive her. Hester demands that he forgives her – she can’t handle this.

• He forgives her and says that their sin isn’t the worst: Chillingworth is worse than him

**Dimmesdale is suggesting that there is a hierarchy of sin**
-This is opposite to the Puritans: they treated all sins with the same great severity
*Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin was out of love and passion, but Chillingworth’s was out of malice. He was motivated by destroying specific people.

• Hester takes it to the next step and says what they did was holy and sacred à He says “Hush Hester!”

• Dimmesdale is worried about being found out à he’s still concerned with his reputation.  He asks Hester for advice, and she tells him that God will be merciful if he can handle this.
• Hester tries to show him that the Puritan world is very narrow, and he is free to go outside of it.

Chapter 18

• HESTER:

• Can think freely: has a mind of “native courage and activity”
• Her thoughts = a “moral wilderness”
• The forest represents Hester’s free range of thought.
• The Puritans couldn’t impose their restrictions on her because she was ostracized
• She does not care about or respect the Puritan traditions
• Her circumstances – the scarlet letter – set her free from the bonds of Puritan society and gave her strength.

• DIMMESDALE:

• Dimmesdale has not had the opportunity to roam freely à he’s always in the confines of the Puritan society
• His job as a clergyman and his high position and reputation in society has bound him even further to Puritan society
• He’s never experienced what Hester has experienced.

• Can you ever deny your past? Or will it always be with you?

• (At this point) For Hester, she believes that you can get rid of your past, and she throws off the A and lets her hair down.

• Nature:

• Approves of the 2 lovers
• Not bound by laws à it’s wild and heathen
• But can’t have a conscious à It’s reckless and has no boundaries
• Pearl is totally at home in nature.

Chapters 19 and 20
Chapter 19

• Hester calls Pearl over to meet Dimmesdale. He's nervous about meeting her because kids don't like him. At first, Dimmesdale was afraid that Pearl looks like him, but he’s relieved that she looks like Hester.
• Hester’s rejection of the A = rejection of Pearl

• By rejecting her past, she’s trying to erase what’s happened. Pearl is a part of that past à she is a direct result of their sin.
• ***Hawthorne is saying that you can never erase the past, you have to deal with it!

• Pearl won’t come over because she doesn’t recognize Hester without the A.

• Pearl keeps throwing fits.
• Hester ends up putting it back on à foreshadows that she can’t get rid of it.

• Pearl asks if Dimmesdale will go back into town with them, hand in hand.
• Pearl shows no favor to Dimmesdale because she knows that he’s a liar and a hypocrite.

• He kisses her and she washes it off – it doesn’t mean anything to her.

• The brook is still sad at the end of the chapter.

***This implies that the events that just took place are just as sad as before. It foreshadows that nothing is going to change.
Chapter 20

• Hester and Dimmesdale plan to leave for England in 4 days

• This is right after he gives his Election Sermon at the mayor’s inauguration
• This was the biggest event of the year and he had been picked to give the sermon
• He’s glad he gets to leave while on the top of his game à He STILL cares.

**Gives us a clue that he’s not totally free of the Puritan mentality like Hester.

• The Puritan world looks different to Dimmesdale

• The town hasn’t changed à Dimmesdale has.
• He had a change of consciousness and acquired knowledge by talking to Hester. He’s now a different, changed man.
• He’s been rejuvenated and has a new energy.

• He runs into many people:

• Old deacon – he wants to make radical commentary on religion to him
• Old woman
• Young girl who has a crush on him
• Puritan kids
• Mistress Hibbins – can see the change in him and laughs because she can see what he’s done.

-She’s wise and can see his truth (opposite of the sexton who found the glove)

• He believes that he is polluting and tainting them

• He doesn’t want to corrupt others with his radical ideas à he sees his new ideas as bad and wrong. He is not thinking like Hester.
• Foreshadows that his decision to leave with Hester might not be the right one for him.

• Dimmesdale can recognize the imperfections of humanity.
• Chillingworth comes in and tries to give him medicine, but he says that he doesn’t need them anymore.

• This is Dimmesdale’s clue that he knows exactly what is going on

• Dimmesdale then writes a new Election Sermon

Chapters 21 and 22

• Looks like the beginning of the story

• Similar language
• Same characters in the same positions: Puritans gathered again, Chillingworth retreated in back, Indians are present, Hester is by the scaffold, Dimmesdale is looking down on the crowd
• Suggests that maybe things haven’t changed. Hester has changed, but the community hasn’t, and they might be too powerful to beat.

• IRONY: In the marketplace, everything should be out in the open. However, Chillingworth, Hester, and Dimmesdale all hide their true intentions!

• Pearl is the only one who is true.

Chapter 21

• The theme of private world vs. public world is expressed through Hester’s character.

• On the OUTSIDE: She blends in and is conformed. She’s stone-faced like a statue.
• On the INSIDE: this marble look is her mask. She is excited that she’s leaving.

• Pearl symbolically expresses Hester’s emotions and acts out what Hester feels inside

• She’s hyper, excited, nervous, restless, anxious
• She flits from place to place like a little bird
• The beadle smiles at her because he remembers her from 7 years ago à suggests that nothing has changed

• Pearl can see right through Dimmesdale and sees his inconsistencies

• In the dark night, he talks and stands with them, but he ignores them in public.
• Hester responds by telling her to stay quiet and not say anything to him

• The first Puritans were not that gray and grim

• They still had holidays like England, but way more toned down and not as radical
• This lively spirit and fun gets diluted every generation
• They get stricter and stricter in policing everyone’s behavior.
• Two men were going to fence, but the beadle stops them, which emphasizes that Puritans keeps you within their boundaries
• *It also suggests that it’s human nature to find ways to express emotions, even in a society which tries so hard to squash them.

• The Indians and the sailors stand apart from the crowd.
• The captain tells Hester that Chillingworth is coming as well, which worries her even more.

• Chillingworth smiles evilly at her.

Chapter 22

• All about the display of Puritan power

• They are totally in control
• Showing off their power
• This suggests that it might be too hard for Hester and Dimmesdale to fight them

• The procession:

• The military à civic leaders à “the divine” or the priest (=Dimmesdale)
• Civic leaders have lots of dignity and pomp and circumstance that they brought over from the Old World.

*IRONY: they came to the New World to escape the Old, but they just recreated it

• “The Divine” or the priests are often more intellectual than the political leaders. The community revered priests more, so ambitious people became clergy.

*Suggests that Dimmesdale is an intellectual and ambitious

• Dimmesdale seems to be in good health and is driven by a spiritual energy.

• This spiritual energy may result from heavenly inspiration, hell-beings, or the loud music
• He’s totally out of it and his mind is somewhere else

• Hester is worried and anxious because Dimmesdale seems remote and distant.

• He totally ignores her and is thriving in this Puritan world.
• Her mind travels back to the forest to try to reassure herself that it actually happened.
• She doesn’t know him anymore, thinks she had deluded herself, and doubts whether or not their passion ever existed.
• She can never forgive him for this.
• She can’t find a connection with him – he’s removed himself.

• Pearl is still nervous, anxious, uneasy, and restless. She is acting out what Hester feels.
• “We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest.”

• Hester says this to Pearl
• Things of the heart are never revealed in the market place.

• Mistress Hibbins represents the Puritan notion that any disclosure and affairs of the heart are deemed evil in the Puritan system.

• She tries to get Hester to talk, and Hester plays dumb.
• At first, she thinks Mistress Hibbins is crazy, but then she’s startled that she can see the evil connection between people.
• Mistress Hibbins says that at some point, Dimmesdale’s secret will be revealed.

• The tone of the sermon carries its meaning.

• It was like music – it breathed passion and emotions
• If you really listened, you could hear the pain and sorrow and melancholy
• It seems to appeal to the hearts of others
• Hester can’t make out the words, but that doesn’t matter à implies that music transcends language

• The captain asks Pearl to tell Hester that Chillingworth will escort Dimmesdale, so she doesn’t have to worry.

• It doesn’t matter if they escape à Chillingworth will continue to torture them

• Hester is right back to where she was 7 years ago.

• She is the object of everyone’s stares and condemnation.
• Everyone is gathered around and is staring at her.
• The townsfolk are the worst.

• CONTRAST: Dimmesdale vs. Hester

• Hester seems to be fixed in her ignomy forever
• Dimmesdale is looking down on her and is “sainted” and pure
• Who would’ve thought they shared the same sin?

Chapter 23

• All about Dimmesdale’s Confession and the 3rd scaffold scene

• In the 1st: the magistrates are in control. They are looking down on Hester, dictating her future.
• In the 2nd: the Puritans are still in control. Dimmesdale can’t break free and confess.

• The subject of Dimmesdale’s speech = the Puritan’s special relationship with God

• Reflects the idea of the “city on a hill” of the first generation of Puritans
• They’re the “chosen” people of God

• In the 3rd scaffold scene, Dimmesdale is in control

• The Puritan magistrates display their extravagant power again
• Dimmesdale shouts, shifting the attention and the power to him
• Wilson tries to offer him his hand, but he rejects him – parallels when the beadle tries to help Hester à Dimmesdale must do this by himself and doesn’t want any help

• Dimmesdale felt “TRIUMPHANT”

• He’s glad to find the courage to confess and get rid of his guilt
• He can confess and doesn’t have to deal with the consequences because he’s leaving and is also dying
• He has triumphed over Chillingworth
• He has beaten the strict Puritan system of thought

• Chillingworth tries to stop Dimmesdale because otherwise he will have no purpose in life
• Hester has mixed feelings – she wanted to leave and start a new life with him

• He rejects what she proposed because it’s not what’s best for him
• He says that God’s will commanded this
• He thinks that this is better than starting a new life by running away

• Dimmesdale says that God is merciful and will forgive!!

**THIS IS A HUGE CHANGE IN MENTALITY FOR HIM**

• Puritans believed in a God of vengeance that punishes, and sinners are sinners for life
• However, Dimmesdale breaks this and says that everyone can sin and make mistakes
• God can forgive Chillingworth too

• Pyrrhic victory: winning at a very high cost

• Dimmesdale escapes the Puritan mentality but at the cost of his life.

• Pearl kisses him on the cheek and the spell was broken.

• Pearl fulfilled her role as a messenger of anguish and got them to be true. Now everything is solved for her, and she can be a little girl.

• Dimmesdale says that all of his suffering has brought him to this point where he can confess.
• Then he dies.

Chapter 24

• Hawthorne comments on the incapability of a large, conformed group to change its mindset and twist reality to confirm their belief-system.
• Did Dimmesdale have an A??

YES

• Due to self-torture
• Chillingworth poisoned it on him
• Due to remorse

NO

• Those in high power positions were in denial and denied that there was any connection between Hester and Dimmesdale
• They said that he was trying to teach a lesson and a parable about the futility of perfection and righteousness. His whole life has been to teach us the lesson that we’re all sinners and to think we’re good is an illusion.
• **This is totally CONTRARY to what Dimmesdale says!! He exclaims that God is merciful and everyone can be forgiven of their sins
• IRONY: They’re shaping what he said into the typical Puritan ideas. They never want to see the truth because it’s contrary to their pre-conceived notions.

• Attitude of the narrator: this is an example of how far people go to deny the truth or protect his character. They go out of their way to reject the facts and fit it into their own worldview.
• Message/truth of the story:

• Be true, open, honest, and genuine.
• Don’t try to hide your imperfections
• Show something that reveals your worst trait
• We all have the capacity to sin, but it doesn’t mean we’re bad

• Love and hate are similar:

• Both based on passion and intimacy
• They’re both dependent on another person, and need someone to be the object of their emotions

• Chillingworth shriveled up and died because he lost his reason to live
• Pearl inherited lots from Chillingworth and became the richest heiress of her day.

• She never came back to Boston and probably got married to a gentleman in New England from the upper class.
• She loves her mom: sends back luxuries and gifts

• Hester comes back to Boston

• She wears the A willingly
• She feels connected to the place where all of her history took place and where she committed her sin
• She sews outfits for Pearl
• She counsels women in issues of love  

• Hester slowly changes the community.

• They forget what the A stands for and they come to respect her and see her in awe, instead of scorning her and seeing her in contempt.
• This change is gradual (not sudden like Dimmesdale) and more long-lasting and effective

• Even in death, the community dictates how they’re supposed to be – doesn’t even allow them to be completely together, but makes them share the shame of the A

 

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A CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER READING GUIDE FOR THE SCARLET LETTER
A 1636 Plymouth Colony law required anyone convicted of adultery to "wear two Capital letters viz AD cut out in cloth and sowed on theire uppermost Garments on their arme or backe; and if att any time they shallbee taken without the said letters whiles they are in the Govrment soewarn to bee forthwith taken and publickly whipt." Other Massachusetts colonies had their own versions of this law. In fact, "The Capitall Lawes of New-England, as they stand now in force in the Common-wealth, by the Court, in the years 1641, 1642, established within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts," proclaim that "if any person committeth adultery with a married or espoused wife, the Adulterer, and the Adulteresse, shall surely be put to death."
Chapter 1—The Prison Door

1. Paragraph two explains the typical allotment of land in a Puritan town. What three establishments are early accounted for on Isaac Johnson's lot? What does this information tell us about Puritan values?
2. How does Hawthorne describe the prison? Identify a significant metaphor in the second paragraph.
3. A pathetic fallacy is a literary device in which Nature appears to understand human feeling and respond accordingly. An example is believing that the sun is shining because you are happy, or that a day is dark and rainy because you are feeling depressed. Hawthorne employs a significant pathetic fallacy in this opening description. Can you locate it?
4. What grows near the prison? What does Hawthorne say it symbolizes?

Chapter 2—The Market Place

1. When does the story take place?
2. For what purposes did people sometimes gather in front of the prison door?
3. Who seems especially interested in the punishment that is about to take place?
4. Pay attention to conversation among the women. What is their attitude toward Hester? Are they unanimous?
5. Note the description Of Hester, the novel's heroine. What seem to be her outstanding characteristics? What is unusual about her? What do people notice first when seeing her ("the point which drew all eyes")?
6. Note again the women's conversation. What appears to be their opinion of Hester now?
7. The beadle's words, "A blessing on the righteous colony of the Massachusetts, where iniquity is dragged out into the sunshine," might engender some thinking about values. Does it seem to you that exposing iniquity is worthy of a blessing? Do we seem to feel it proper today to expose personal behavior, especially wrongdoing, to public view?
8. What is Hester's punishment that day? What does Hawthorne say about this kind of punishment, the kind that does not allow the culprit to hide his or her shame?
9. What is purpose of contrasting Hester and her baby to "the image of Divine Maternity"?

10.  Pay particular attention to the description of "the man well stricken in years." Who do you think he is?
Chapter 3—The Recognition

1. Read carefully the second paragraph. Who is the man at the Indian's side?
2. Imagine that you are this man. What information do you, a stranger to Boston, learn from the townsman with whom you talk?
3. The townsman says that the magistrates of Boston have, "in their mercy and tenderness of heart," softened Hester's punishment. What do you think of this mercy?
4. For what reason do Governor Bellingham and the ministers speak to Hester? Why does Mr. Wilson think Mr. Dimmesdale should speak to Hester? What is Dimmesdale's feeling about this job? Note with care the first description of Dimmesdale.

1. What effect do Dimmesdale' swords have on Hester? On the baby?
2. What kind of father does Hester say her baby will have?
3. Contrast the two ministers' different reactions to Hester's refusal to name her fellow sinner.

Chapter 4—The Interview

1. Why did the jailer send for a doctor for Hester?
2. You ought to know for certain, by the seventh or eighth paragraph of this chapter, just who this man is. What clues (in previous chapters) has Hawthorne given you as to his identity? Why, do you suppose, does Chillingworth want to keep his identity a secret?
3. It would be so easy for Chillingworth to kill Hester. Why does he want her to live?
4. Upon whom does Chillingworth put the blame for Hester's sin? How much is her fault? How much is his own?
5. How much revenge does Chillingworth plan to get on Hester? (A particular line in their conversation tells us exactly.) Who is the real object of Chillingworth's revenge?
6. The paragraph beginning "Never, sayest thou?" if read well, can reveal exactly what kind of person Chillingworth is. Read it with a touch of villainy in thy voice and thou must needs quake with fearfulness at the plan this mis-shapen scholar. (Do you see how easy it is to get carried away?)
7. Hester says something interesting about how a person's words may lead to one interpretation of his character and his actions may lead to another. How do Chillingworth's words present him? His actions?
8. What request does Chillingworth make of Hester? What is his reason?

Chapter 5—Hester at Her Needle

1. How does Hester feel upon leaving prison? What does the future have in store for her?
2. You might wonder why Hester doesn't leave Boston, since it is only in Boston that she must wear the scarlet letter. What are her reasons? Be sure not to overlook the most important of them.
3. What features of Hester's home seem most appropriate?
4. How does Hester make a living? In what ironic way does she advertise her skills?

1. Who were the only ones who made no use of Hester's services? Why?
2. What does Hester do with the extra money she earns ("her superfluous means")? What does this tell us about her character?
3. Hawthorne compares Hester's scarlet letter with the mark on Cain's forehead. If you don't know about Cain's mark, you can read about it in the Bible in Genesis 4:1-16. Biblical allusions are not uncommon in literature, so a well-read person is familiar with the major stories of the Bible. This familiarity has nothing to do with a person's religious beliefs.
4. What specific "tortures" ("the innumerable throbs of anguish") does Hester endure?
5. In the penultimate (that is, the next to the last) paragraph of the chapter, Hawthorne begins to suggest that there might be some positive feature of Hester's wearing the scarlet letter. What is it?

10.  Observe how Hawthorne uses one of his favorite devices, intentional ambiguity, in
the last paragraph.
Chapter 6—Pearl

1. Why does Hester name her baby Pearl?
2. Pearl is a significant character in this novel, so pay attention to the detailed description of her.
3. Isn't it a paradox that Pearl, the product of sin, is "worthy to have been brought forth in Eden"?
4. In the fourth paragraph, the "Scriptural authority" is Proverbs 13:24, which reads, "He that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." (In modern English, parents who withhold punishment actually hate their children, but those that love them correct their behavior early.") What is Hawthorne saying about the way parents raised their children in Puritan times? How does Hester raise Pearl?
5. Why does Pearl seem not to be a human child?
6. Why is Pearl an "outcast of the infantile world"?
7. What kind of games did "the Puritan nurture ... permit" children to play? Do they seem like fun to you?
8. What is the attitude of the Puritan children toward Pearl?

9.  What does Pearl use for playthings? (Hawthorne calls them "the puppets of Pearl's
witchcraft," a good phrase.)

1. The reference to "dragon's teeth" (in the same paragraph) is an allusion to a Greek myth in which Cadmus kills a dragon and plants his teeth. The teeth grow into warriors who fight each other until only few are left alive. This myth, incidentally, is the beginning of the story that eventually comes to concern Oedipus Rex, but there is no association to be made between that story and this one.
2. What was the first thing Pearl noticed in her mother?
3. What happens when Hester sees her reflection in Pearl's eyes? This is still another example of intentional ambiguity.
4. Who do the gossiping neighbors claim is Pearl's father?

Chapter 7—The Governor's Hall

1. What two reasons does Hester have for visiting the governor?
2. In what way does Pearl remind Hester of the scarlet letter?
3. Contemplate the tremendous significance of Hester's looking into the armour, which reflects the scarlet letter disproportionately and hides Hester behind it.
4. The description of the garden recalls the Garden of Eden, an appropriate suggestion since we have already seen references to the Garden of Eden earlier in the novel. Pearl's crying for a red rose may suggest the desire for forbidden fruit, and the refusal by Hester ("I hear voices in the garden") may correspond to Genesis 2:16-17 and 3:6-8 ("the voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden).

A comment here about allusions, Biblical and otherwise: it can be frustrating to the student to encounter several allusions and need to have all of them pointed out. A common reaction is then to reject them or to express doubt that the author intended the allusion. Students need to be reminded that they are relatively inexperienced in reading literature intended for literate and educated readers. Instead of being defensive about it, they will find it much more productive to accept whatever assistance is offered. The more they read the better they will become at recognizing references to other literature and history. In the meantime, they do best to keep their eyes and minds open. Biblical allusions present a particular problem among people who are sensitive about the presence of the Bible in the school. While that sensitivity is understandable, it is important for teachers, especially teachers of challenging academic programs, to remember and remind others of the enormous influence the Bible has had on western culture. If we eliminate the Bible as literature, we eliminate a huge portion of mature literature, art, music, architecture, theatre, and all the other arts as well.

Chapter 8—The Elf-Child and the Minister

1. Who arc Bellingham's guests? Which is not in good health? Why? Which is the medical advisor to the sick one?
2. All of the descriptions of Pearl by Bellingham and his guests remind the reader of what important visual fact?
3. What matter were Bellingham and his guests discussing before Hester's arrival?
4. Be sure you understand both sides of the argument between Hester and Bellingham.
5. How does Wilson "test" Pearl? How does she do on this test?
6. Specifically, what is Pearl's answer? How did she get such a strange idea? What else do you know about the prison rosebush? Think back to chapter 1, where Hawthorne said it was a symbol, and see if you can't work out the symbolic significance of this incident.
7. How has Chillingworth changed over the years?
8. To whom does Hester turn for assistance in her attempt to keep Pearl? Why does she feel he can help?
9. Dimmesdale says that Pearl is both a blessing and a torture for Hester. How is this true?

1. Pay special attention to Dimmesdale's words beginning, "... this boon was meant."
2. As Hester and Pearl leave, "it is averred" that something happened. Hawthorne likes to include hearsay, gossip, rumor, legend, and so on in his story. Where have we seen it already in this novel? Keep an eye open for other instances as we read on.
3. Who stops Hester as she departs? For what purpose?

Chapter 9—The Leech

1. When you look up leech in the dictionary, you will find several definitions. Which of the many possibilities seems most appropriate here?
2. The first three paragraphs explain how Chillingworth sets up his medical practice in Boston.
3. Who becomes Chillingworth's prime patient? What is his illness?
4. What is Dimmesdale's most characteristic gesture? Why do you suppose he makes this gesture?

1. Observe how typically the people of Boston, when they are unable to explain Chillingworth's arrival out of the blue, create a rumor about him.
2. "So Roger Chillingworth" begins a really important section, describing the relationship that develops between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale.
3. What happens "after a time, at a hint from Roger Chillingworth"?
4. The penultimate paragraph (you had that word in chapter 5, question 9) compares or associates Chillingworth with whom?

Chapter 10—The Leech and His Patient
1. Dimmesdale develops a characteristic similar to Hester's in that he was "suspicious of
all mankind."

1. The conversation between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale concerning confession of sin is worth special attention. Apparently Dimmesdale is concealing some sin. What might that sin be? Really?
2. What occurrence interrupts this conversation?
3. What is unusual about Pearl's behavior?
4. Do you see any symbolic meaning in Pearl's placing the prickly burdock on Hester's scarlet letter? If not, think some more until you do.
5. When Dimmesdale refuses to "open ... the wound or trouble" in his heart to Chillingworth, to whom does he say he will bare his soul?
6. Hawthorne makes a joke! It doesn't happen often, so let's not let this one get by. Dimmesdale falls asleep over a book which "must have been a work of vast ability in the somniferous school of literature." (The humor depends on your knowing what "somniferous means.)
7. The final two paragraphs are exceptionally important. Hawthorne does not say what Chillingworth saw, but maybe you can imagine. Anyhow, you might wonder what could have made Chillingworth so happy.
8. Can you think of a fairy tale character that Chillingworth resembles here?

Chapter 11—The Interior of a Heart

1. What has become of Dimmesdale's attitude toward Chillingworth?

1. Even though his health is failing, how are Dimmesdale's fortunes as a minister?
2. Interestingly, Dimmesdale is annoyed by the high regard his parishioners have for him ("the agony with which this public veneration tortured him"). Here is another example of intentional ambiguity, a form of irony. Dimmesdale is not what the people think he is.
3. It's almost humorous how the congregation mistakes Dimmesdale's statements of his sinfulness. (Almost, but not quite.)
4. Compare the visions Dimmesdale has in his "lengthened vigils" with Hester's reminiscence in chapter 2. Why does Hester appear in Dimmesdale's vision? What is important about her gesture?

Chapter 12—The Minister's Vigil

1. Where does Dimmesdale go?
2. Probably it's not just accidental that it's been seven years since Hester stood on the platform. Seven has been a magical number since ancient times.
3. Why does Hawthorne say that "many culprits ... have ascended" the platform? With what is he asking us to associate it? In other words, what is he making the platform a symbol of? Do you know by now why Dimmesdale is climbing it?
4. No one comes when Dimmesdale screams. Why? What does Dimmesdale see from the scaffold?
5. Where has Wilson been that night?
6. Where have Hester and Pearl been? Do you think it is a fitting place for a seven-year-old girl to be? Maybe she had to come along because her mother couldn't get a babysitter.
7. What does Dimmesdale invite Hester and Pearl to do?
8. How does Dimmesdale feel as he touches Pearl's hand? Why do you suppose he feels this way?
9. The paragraph beginning "But before Mr. Dimmesdale had done speaking" is very important. Read it carefully. Most of the novel's important symbols are brought together at this moment. What is the light in the sky? What does this unnatural light reveal? How is Pearl a connecting link between Hester and Dimmesdale? (You might have two answers, one literal, one figurative.) Why does Dimmesdale have his hand over his heart?

1. Who is standing across the way watching the scene? How does Dimmesdale feel about him? Are you surprised to hear him say so?
2. What does the sexton give to Dimmesdale? How does the sexton account for Dimmesdale's loss of this item?
3. How does the sexton (speaking for the townspeople) interpret the light in the sky?
4. This chapter is the halfway point in the novel. Because of the novel's rigorous construction, the midpoint is the climax. From this point on, we are heading toward the resolution.

Chapter 13—Another View of Hester

1. Can you explain why Hester feels an obligation toward Dimmesdale?
2. Hawthorne writes in the middle of the second paragraph that "It is to the credit of human nature, that... it loves more readily than it hates." Do you think he's right? Has he illustrated this theme anywhere in the novel?
3. This chapter, which discusses Hester's life, explains why the townspeople change their views of Hester. Although it is mostly descriptive, be sure you understand why they do.
4. The sentence "Had she fallen among thieves, [the scarlet letter] would have kept her safe" is an allusion to the parable of the Good Samaritan, told in Luke 10:30-37. It's worth reading.
5. What is the "sad transformation" that has come over Hester?
6. Notice that Hawthorne says of Pearl that her "nature had something wrong in it, which continually betokened that she had been born amiss." What other characters' outward appearances suggest their inner natures? This is a significant feature of romantic literature, one that continues through our own time, especially in the movies.

7.    This chapter is typical of Hawthorne's circular style. He begins by discussing
Hester's attitude toward Dimmesdale, and then wanders into related matters until he
eventually returns ("Now, however, her interview with the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale")
to the first thought. He did this before when Hester stood on the scaffold in chapter 2.
Hawthorne builds entire chapters, as this one, around this device; or, more often, he
constructs his longer paragraphs this way. This observation might help you to read the
longer paragraphs with more comprehension.
8.   How do you explain, in the first sentence of the final paragraph, the phrase "her
former husband"? How did he get to be her former husband? Did I miss a divorce
somewhere? Or is there another explanation?

Chapter 14—Hester and the Physician

1. Hawthorne says again that a great transformation has come over Chillingworth. He has changed "himself into a devil." We have seen before how Chillingworth has been compared to Satan.
2. The conversation between Hester and Chillingworth should be self-explanatory. Notice Hester's request: "Forgive, and leave his further retribution to the Power that claims it." Perhaps this is a theme of the novel.
3. Chillingworth says, "Let the black flower blossom as it may." Do you remember what the black flower is? What does he mean here?

Chapter 15—Hester and Pearl

1. Hester declares that she hates Chillingworth. Do you think she has good reason?
2. How has Pearl been amusing herself?
3. Pearl makes a letter to wear herself. You might consider what significance the two colors of the two letters have: scarlet for Hester and green for Pearl. What might green symbolize in connection with Pearl?
4. Why is Pearl's response to her mother's questions concerning why she wears the scarlet letter ironic?
5. For what reasons does Hester consider telling Pearl why she wears the letter?
6. You can see how Pearl is getting on her mother's nerves. How would you have answered Pearl? Do you believe, as Hester does, that "There are many things in this world that a child must not ask about"? Notice that Hester, at the end of the chapter, answers Pearl "with an asperity that she had never permitted to herself before."

Chapter 16—A Forest Walk
This chapter begins what is for many readers the most memorable part of the novel. Remember that Hawthorne has called his novel "a tale of human frailty and sorrow." In chapters 16-19 you will be expected to respond to this sorrow. Watch especially how every possibility for happiness is eliminated. Watch also how Hawthorne uses images of light and dark in the forest. If you are a romantic, you will find this scene especially moving.

1. Why won't Hester visit Dimmesdale in his study?

1. Notice how the sunlight withdraws as Hester approaches it. What does the sunlight symbolize here? Why is there none for Hester? If you have forgotten about the pathetic fallacy, return to chapter 1, question 3 for a reminder.
2. What stories has Pearl heard? What does Pearl think Hester's letter has to do with the Black Man?
3. Notice how Hawthorne compares Pearl to the brook. Showing people and Nature as one was a favorite technique of Romantic writers.
4. Observe, too, how sorrowfully Dimmesdale approaches.

Chapter 17—The Pastor and His Parishioner

1. How do Hester and Dimmesdale approach each other? Notice the things they speak of—the weather, their health. Why is it so hard for them really to communicate with each other?
2. Just before Hester tells Dimmesdale that Chillingworth was her husband (again she uses the past tense), she stresses the value of truth. Of what significance should this speech be to Dimmesdale?
3. Hester asks Dimmesdale to forgive her and let God take care of her punishment—the same request she made of Chillingworth.
4. Why does Dimmesdale consider Chillingworth to be the worst sinner of the three?
5. Hester speaks here one of the most important lines of the novel: What we did had a consecration of its own. Be sure you understand all the implications of this sentence. She (and Dimmesdale) considered their "sin" to be morally acceptable (it was consecrated) in a system of laws higher than those of the church. Hester is trying to justify herself by saying that in some cases state laws are imperfect and do not, or should not, apply in all cases to all people. But she cannot think that she was following God's laws, because adultery is forbidden by the Ten Commandments. Then is she placing her individual law above even God's law? Can she do this? Does Hester consider her love for Dimmesdale to be more important or holier than the Ten Commandments?

This is a topic—the conflict between personal law and public law— that appears in a great number of important literary works, such as Antigone, Crime and Punishment, and The Crucible, to name just a few.

1. What courses of action does Hester suggest to Dimmesdale so that he can rid himself
   of Chillingworth's menace? Why is none of them satisfactory to him?

Chapter 18—A Flood of Sunshine

1. Again Hawthorne gives a positive result of the scarlet letter—it was Hester's "passport into regions where other women dared not tread."
2. Was Dimmesdale's sin a sin of passion or of principle?
3. In paragraph 4, Hawthorne gives a very succinct statement concerning Dimmesdale's predicament: "between fleeing as an avowed criminal, and remaining as a hypocrite, conscience might find it hard to strike the balance ...." This is an example of a dilemma, a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives. To be in such a situation we say is to be "on the horns of a dilemma." If you interpret the metaphor to suggest being tossed by a bull, you see immediately how painful that can be.
4. What does Dimmesdale, after a struggle, resolve to do? What are his reasons?
5. What does Hester do to make it as though the past had never been? (Don't let this question go unanswered. We've been waiting seven years ...)
6. How does she feel after she has done this significant thing? Note the line, "She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom."
7. The paragraph beginning, "The stigma gone ..." is important. Hester removes her cap and her letter, and lets her hair fall down. Look back to chapter 13, where the letter, cap, and hair had been mentioned as symbols of Hester's "sad transformation" from beauty to plainness. These same symbols are used here to reveal Hester's natural beauty. Notice that this chapter is called "A Flood of Sunshine," a title involving a metaphor, Hester's hair is another such flood. What happens, concerning the sunshine, when Hester's hair falls down? This is one the great pathetic fallacies in all of literature.
8. Notice how Nature reacts to the love between Hester and Dimmesdale. "Such was the sympathy of Nature ..." Hawthorne uses the word "sympathy" in its more general sense of feeling the same ("sym" meaning the same and "pathos" meaning feeling) rather than feeling sorry for someone.
9. Pearl is standing in a beam of sunshine, of course. The flickering light makes her look "now like a real child, now like a child's spirit." How Hawthorne loves visual ambiguity!

1. How do the animals of the forest treat Pearl? Note the hearsay: "A wolf, it is said— but here the tale has surely lapsed into the improbable."
2. Why does Pearl approach slowly when she is called?

 

Chapter 19—The Child at the 15 rook side

1. Hester and Dimmesdale talk very lovingly of their child.
2. What is the effect of the reflection of Pearl in the pool?
3. What does Dimmesdale do when Pearl looks at him? Then, how does Pearl respond to this gesture?
4. Why won't Pearl come to Hester?
5. Does Pearl's command "Come thou and take it up" seem to you as though she were reminding her mother of her guilt?
6. What happens as Hester puts up her hair? Why?
7. Remember that in the second scaffold scene Pearl asks if Dimmesdale will stand with Hester and her in broad daylight. What similar request does Pearl make of Dimmesdale now?
8. What does Pearl do when Dimmesdale kisses her?

Chapter 20—The Minister in a Maze

1. What arrangement has Hester made for Dimmesdale, Pearl, and herself?
2. Why does Hawthorne consider Dimmesdale "so pitiably weak"? Note the final sentence of this paragraph (the third), which makes use of ambiguity.
3. What strange feeling does Dimmesdale have as he returns to the town? Be sure to know the meaning of the word "mutability."
4. What three people does Dimmesdale meet? What does he want to do to each of these people? Why?
5. In the paragraph about the old woman, Hawthorne writes that she might have dropped dead when she heard Dimmesdale's words, "as by the effect of an intensely poisonous infusion." You might be interested to know that in the 1600s it was common belief that a person could be killed if poison were poured, or infused, into his ear. Shakespeare, writing in the early 1600s, used this belief as a method of death in Hamlet.
6. What is the importance of the episode between Dimmesdale and Mistress Hibbins?

Chapter 21—The New England Holiday

1. "The day" in the first sentence is three days after the forest scene. The rest of the novel's action takes place on this day.
2. How does Hester feel on this particular day? To what does she look forward?
3. Notice that Pearl's "garb is all of one idea with her nature," suggesting again the relationship between her outer appearance and her inner nature.
4. Why is Pearl confused as she and Hester reach town?
5. Notice the forms of entertainment popular in England that are not to be found in Massachusetts.
6. Hawthorne writes, "the generation [which came after the first Puritans] wore the blackest shade of Puritanism, and so darkened the national visage with it, that all the subsequent years have not sufficed to clear it up. We have yet to learn again the forgotten art of gayety." Do you agree?
7. Notice that Chillingworth is talking with the captain of the ship. Why do you suppose that he is doing that?
8. What news does the captain bring Hester? How does she respond to it?

Chapter 22—The Procession

1. The first part of this chapter is a lavish description of the groups performing in the parade.
2. Note the description of Dimmesdale as he marches.
3. What does Mistress Hibbins know that Hester wishes she didn't?
4. The paragraph beginning "This vocal organ" is a description of Dimmesdale's sermon.
5. What message does the ship's captain give to Pearl?
6. It is sad to read in the penultimate paragraph the sentence beginning, "Hester saw and recognized."

Chapter 23—The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter

1. What is the townspeople's reaction to Dimmesdale's sermon?

1. How does Dimmesdale feel about his career as a minister at this time? (Look in the third paragraph.)
2. After he gives his sermon, what change comes over Dimmesdale?
3. Why does Chillingworth try to stop Dimmesdale? After all, hadn't he wanted Dimmesdale's guilt to be known?
4. Where is the only place that Dimmesdale could have escaped Chillingworth? What does this mean?
5. What does the crowd see as Dimmesdale tears away his "ministerial band"? Are you sure?
6. Does Dimmesdale think he and Hester will meet again in Heaven? Why?
7. "By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast"—is this line meant to be taken literally or figuratively? Note how the alliteration, which makes the line quite poetic, provides emphasis.
8. What happens as Dimmesdale dies?

Chapter 24—Conclusion

1. As might be expected, "there was more than one account of what had been witnessed on the scaffold."
2. What explanations are offered for what had happened?
3. How does Hawthorne feel about those who say that Dimmesdale never said that he was Pearl's father?
4. Does the moral beginning "Be true! Be true! Be true!" seem like a theme to you? Compare it to what Pearl said to Dimmesdale on the scaffold in chapter 12.
5. What happened to Chillingworth?
6. Why might love and hate be really "the same thing at bottom"?
7. Who is Chillingworth's beneficiary?
8. Be sure you know what happens to Hester and Pearl.
9. Who discovers that Hester has returned?

10.  What, according to rumor, has become of Pearl?

11. What role does Hester play in the community?

1. What is Hester's "firm belief of which she assures unhappy women? For a novel written in 1850 this is a remarkably contemporary idea,
2. Beside whom is Hester buried?
3. ""Gules" is the color red. "Sable" is black. The final sentence, which summarizes the whole novel in a remarkably concise and symbolic way, is the description of Hester's tombstone. Before the days of colored printing, people had to find a way to instruct engravers who were going to produce coats of arms, banners, flags, and the like. This sentence says that Hester's tombstone, which has a black background (a field sable), will be engraved the letter A in red (gules).   Think of all the other things in the novel that can be described with that sentence—the midnight sky in the second scaffold scene; Hester's blouse; Hester's life, which seems to have been very bleak with only one moment of happiness; even the Puritan period of American history, which was a dark period, as Hawthorne tells it, "relieved only by one ever-glowing point of light." Let us remember that the name Hester—an archaic form of Esther—means "star."

You might remember that Chillingworth said that Hester "will be a living sermon against sin, until the ignominious letter be engraved upon her tombstone." Yet the letter can represent something other than Adultery. We have already come to see it represent Able, Art, and Angel. What else might the A have meant to Hester? Remember that in some Massachusetts communities, Plymouth among them, the punishment for adultery was to wear the letters AD. What could AD have represented to Hester?
Congratulations. By reading this novel you have accomplished something noteworthy and gained a great deal—you have increased your reading skills, expanded your vocabulary, considered value systems that might be different from your own, investigated human psychology, and, it is to be hoped, undergone an emotional experience that will never leave you.

 

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