Scarlet Letter Chapter Summaries – Flashcards with Answers

people dressed in gray, cemetery and prison always constructed first, rose bush outside of prison door; "we could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers and present it to the reader. It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet and moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow."

Hester ascends the scaffold with Pearl, ornate "A", sees life before eyes, faces realities; "But the point which drew all eyes, and, as it were, transfigured the wearer, - so that both men and women, who had been familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne, were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time, - was that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom."

Hester sees Chillingworth, he demands silence, Hester sentenced to 3 hours on scaffold, Dimmesdale and Wilson demand confession, Wilson lecture on sin, Hester back to prison; "Thus she will be a living sermon against sin, until the ignominious letter be engraved upon her tombstone."

Hester back in cell going crazy, physician (Chillingworth) brought in, blame placed equally on both, sworn to secrecy; "He bears no letter of infamy wrought into his garment, as thou dost; but I shall read it on his heart."

Hester freed, viewed as embodiment of sin, chose to stay in New England for punishment, ready employment with needlework (not bridal garments), scarlet letter gave Hester ability to see other people's sins as well; "She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts."

description of infant, Hester's fears for Pearl, sprite, throws stones at other children, Hester tries to instill Christian values/Heavenly Father, Pearl rejects; "Her mother, while Pearl was yet an infant, grew acquainted with a certain peculiar look that warned her when it would be labor thrown away to insist, persuade, or plead."

Hester delivers gloves to governor, fears that Pearl will be taken away from her, opulent mansion; "It had reached her ears, that there was a design on the part of some of the leading inhabitants, cherishing the more rigid order of principles in religion and government, to deprive her of her child."

Governor Bellingham, Pastor Wilson, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Pearl refuses to answer pastor's question, Dimmesdale helps Hester keep her, Mistress Hibbins calls for Hester to meet the Black Man, Pearl keeps her safe; "But here - if we suppose this interview betwixt Mistress Hibbins and Hester Prynne to be authentic, and not a parable - was already an illustration of the young minister's argument against sundering the relation of a fallen mother to the offspring of her frailty. Even thus early had the child saved her from Satan's snare."

Chillingworth hides identity, works as physician, Dimmesdale deteriorates, Chillingworth attends to him, pries into heart and mind, nature of disease not apparent, live together to maximize care, Chillingworth evolves into evil-looking; "To sum up the matter, it grew to be a widely diffused opinion, that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, like many other personages of especial sanctity, in all ages of the Christian world, was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan's emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth."

Dimmesdale doesn't recognize the enemy he has in Chillingworth, they talk about people revealing secrets to be purified, dramatic irony strong, Hester and Pearl approach, Pearl calls Hester away from the Black Man, Chillingworth tears Dimmesdale's shirt off, sees something that confirms his suspicions; "He now dug into the poor clergyman's heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man's bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption."

Chillingworth learns to manipulate Dimmesdale, who is conscious of the evil but can't label it, everyone else mesmerized by Dimmesdale, has bloody scourge in closet; "And yet, by the constitution of his nature, he loved the truth, and loathed the lie, as few men ever did. Therefore, above all things else, he loathed his miserable self!"

Dimmesdale goes to scaffold at night, shrieks, Pastor Wilson passes from Governor Winthrop's deathbed, Dimmesdale thinks he speaks but really doesn't, Hester and Pearl come along, all three up on scaffold together, reunited on Judgment Day, red letter A appears in sky, Chillingworth watching, takes Dimmesdale home, A interpreted as Angel; "And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two."

Dimmesdale's nerve destroyed, Pearl 7 years old, Hester helps in times of trouble, A interpreted as Able, town starts to love Hester and take pride in her, Hester resolves to meet Chillingworth and try to help Dimmesdale; "Such helpfulness was found in her - so much power to do, and power to sympathize - that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength."

Pearl plays while Hester talks to Chillingworth, has been transformed into a fierce devil, discussing tortured Dimmesdale, who has only increased his debt to Chillingworth, Hester wants to tell Dimmesdale her relationship to Chillingworth; "Ye that have wronged me are not sinful, save in a kind of typical illusion; neither am I fiend-like, who have snatched a fiend's office from his hands. It is our fate. Let the black flower blossom as it may!"

Pearl plays with reflection in water, makes boats, plays with animals, throws rocks at birds, makes a seaweed letter A for herself, is curious about the scarlet letter, makes connection between Hester/letter and Dimmesdale, Hester evades questions; "Pearl's inevitable tendency to hover about the enigma of the scarlet letter seemed an innate quality of her being. From the earliest epoch of her conscious life, she had entered upon this as her appointed mission."

Hester and Pearl go to tell Dimmesdale relationship with Chillingworth, sunshine runs from Hester, discuss Black Man, sad brook, Hester meets Dimmesdale in forest; "The light lingered about the lonely child, as if glad of such a playmate, until her mother had drawn almost nigh enough to step into the magic circle too." "Once in my life I met the Black Man! This scarlet letter is his mark!"

neither Hester nor Dimmesdale has found peace despite reverence, hidden scarlet letter, Hester tells him about Chillingworth husband, he forgives her, fears Chillingworth's secrecy, Hester pushes Dimmesdale along; "Hester Prynne was now fully sensible of the deep injury for which she was responsible to this unhappy man, in permitting him to lie for so many years, or, indeed, for a single moment, at the mercy of one, whose purposes could not be other than malevolent."

Hester prepared by long ignominy, Dimmesdale broken down by suffering, Hester throws scarlet letter, lets her hair down, youth and beauty return, love creates sunshine, Hester calls Pearl who had been playing in the forest, partridge, squirrel, fox, wolf; "Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world."

Pearl approaches, Dimmesdale anxious about her reaction, Pearl refused to come close, Hester replaces scarlet letter and puts her hair back up, Pearl comes, washes Dimmesdale's kiss off in the brook; "Hereupon, Pearl broke away from her mother, and, running to the brook, stooped over it, and bathed her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss was quite washed off, and diffused through a long lapse of the gliding water."

Dimmesdale leaves Hester and Pearl, faces temptation to say terrible things to deacon/eldest female church member/youngest sister/children, Hibbins says he has visited the forest, Chillingworth enters, realizes that he is now an enemy; "No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true."

people in marketplace for inauguration of governor, Pearl wonders about Dimmesdale, Spanish Main crew odd/ferocious, Chillingworth talks with captain, gets place on ship intended for Hester/Dimmesdale escape; "But, at that instant, she beheld old Roger Chillingworth himself, standing in the remotest corner of the marketplace, and smiling on her; a smile which - across the wide and bustling square, and through all the talk and laughter, and various thoughts, moods, and interests of the crowd - conveyed secret and fearful meaning."

magistrates and nobles approach scene of Election Sermon, Dimmesdale strength and invigoration, Hibbins speaks to Hester regarding Dimmesdale, Pearl flits around and enchants everyone; "The sainted minister in the church! The woman of the scarlet letter in the marketplace! What imagination would have been irreverent enough to surmise that the same scorching stigma was on them both?"

crowd praises Dimmesdale, sad undertones can't be understood, Dimmesdale's energy and glow gone, Dimmesdale calls to Hester and Pearl, Chillingworth panics, three stand on scaffold together, Dimmesdale confesses to everyone, tears garment off, "it was revealed," Chillingworth ticked that Dimmesdale is no longer under his power, Pearl kisses Dimmesdale, Dimmesdale dies; "Lo, the scarlet letter which Hester wears! Ye have all shuddered at it! ... But there stood one in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye have not shuddered!"

multiple interpretations of events, scarlet letter on Dimmesdale's chest (self-flagration or caused by Chillingworth or caused by long remorse), others claimed that there was no mark at all and no guilty connection to Hester, Chillingworth lost vitality and desire for life with loss of search for vengeance, Chillingworth left property in New England and England to Pearl, Pearl richest heiress, Hester and Pearl disappeared soon after Chillingworth's death, scaffold and house sacred, Hester returned, Pearl a mystery, Dead? Love interest in other land?, Hester embroiders baby clothes, Hester kept scarlet letter on for rest of life, continued Sister of Charity work; "It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom."