The Scarlet Letter: Reading Response Questions

Assignment Due: Sept. 24

On a Pages/Word document, answer each of the following questions as thoroughly as necessary. Some need only a minimal amount of writing while others will require deeper examination and response. Number your answers.

1. What role does shame play in the punishment of criminals? Is it as common today as it was in the time period of The Scarlet Letter? Do you think it should be? Do you think shaming criminals would lessen crime in America? What role does shame play in this novel?
   
2. What is Hester Prynne’s punishment? What are the Puritans hoping to accomplish with this sentence?
   
3. How do you feel about Hester’s punishment?
   
4. Whom does Hester recognize in the crowd as she stands on the scaffold? Why does
   this discovery both confuse and frighten her?
   
5. How does Hester live after she is released from prison? What keeps her from leaving
   Boston?
   
6. How do religious beliefs and colonial laws intermingle in this story? To what extent
   do religion and law mix in modern American society?
   
7. What effect can guilt have on a person’s life?
   
8. How does Roger Chillingworth’s appearance change? How does Hester interpret the
   changes she sees in Chillingworth?
   
9. How does Dimmesdale feel about his role as the much-respected minister in the
   community? Why doesn’t he thrive amidst these people who so admire him?
   
10. What causes Hester to decide to speak to Chillingworth after so many years? What
    does she hope to accomplish?
    
11. Hester has learned to live with the scarlet letter. Dimmesdale seems to hardly be
    able to cope. Do you agree that Dimmesdale would have been better off if Hester had
    named him as Pearl’s father seven years earlier?
    
12. Why does Hester plan to speak to Dimmesdale? What is the result of the meeting?
    
13. As a young woman, Hester did not meet her society’s expectations. How do the
    Puritan societal expectations compare and contrast with our modern day society’s
    expectations?
    
14. What happens to Chillingworth after Dimmesdale dies? Why does this happen?
    
15. The wearing of the scarlet letter was intended to isolate Hester Prynne from society
    and to call attention to her sin. Given the way in which Hester’s life ends, do you think that the scarlet letter accomplished what the magistrates intended?