Sample/practice exam 2016, questions PDF

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Sample questions for the scarlett letter...

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Reading Questions for The Scarlet Letter 1. Remark about the opening scene of chapter one. What does the rose symbolise? The jailhouse door? How does Hawthorne foreshadow the events of the novel through this scene?  The Jailhouse door could represent the inner barrier shown towards sin. With the temptation of the rose outside as the enticement that lures the innocent.  It could also present what is left behind once someone has sinned. The evidence is left behind as a marked reminder for those that follow… This is illustrated through Prynne as her downfall leads her to be placed in the decaying jail (mirroring her inner decay)  The red of the rose symbolises infidelity, passion, lust and romance. This is purposely used by Hawthorne as a symbolic warning to the coming events.  Symbols: weed – puritan society, pervasive and unyielding. Wild rose – beauty and hope (depending on view)  Prison doors themselves – set out the tone of the novel “looked more antique than anything else in the New World” 2. Using the reading “The Example of English Puritans,” how do religious beliefs and colonial laws intermingle in this story? What is Hawthorne’s stance on this? Explain your answer.  Religious beliefs and colonial law were almost one and the same as the sin of Prynne became punishable by the law. She was held is a jail cell and sentenced to wear the scarlet letter for the rest of her life in that village. The Puritan’s stance of life overflowed into their law system as sin and crime were deemed to be the same.  Hawthorne brings this particular subject to light in an almost mocking manner as there is a lack of distinction between matters that should be dealt with in a Church and those that should be dealt with by law. There seems to be a hyperbolic nature to the exit of Prynne from the jail parting people in the same way that God parted the red sea. Hawthorne makes this connection for dramatic effect and to perhaps raise to the reader that the length and severity of punishment outweighed the original crime. 3. If Hester Prynne is the protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, who is/are the antagonist/s? Why?  Roger Chillingworth as he continued held malice in his heart, determined to send Prynne and her lover into deeper depths of despair. The desire for revenge overtook his life, abandoning the forgiving elements of human nature and replacing them dark intentions and evil thoughts.  Could be argued that the Reverend Dimmesdale is also a protagonist as he denied the role that he played in Prynne’s downfall. He kept his place in society intact whilst leaving hers to diminish and ruin. Even in his most troubled moments, he will not throw off the shackles he made for himself and hold their hands in public. It is only at the end when he relinquishes the guise he wore for 7 years that he is able to find himself, God and peace. (notes from class: more her foil than her antagonist)  Society itself is the main protagonist

4. Hawthorne came from a long line of Puritans (one of his forefathers was a judge during the Salem witch trials), and Puritan beliefs about subjects like guilt, repression, original sin, and discipline inform the book on every level. What is your impression of how the Puritan worldview is taken up and treated by Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter?  Nathanial Hawthorne’s intricate and in-depth understanding of the Puritan religion permeates through every layer of the novel. He uses this knowledge to shed a different light on guilt, repression and sin expressing that if a different angle or viewpoint is used then one can see that all are sinners. The targeting of Prynne is meant to highlight illustrate the Puritan worldview is not correct in pointing such harsh judgement at one person and at the same time holding another individual so far above and beyond all others. Hawthorne is expressing that everyone is mortal and all are the same in the eyes of God, so that such intensive and cold-hearted punishments are futile and turning against the true elements of the Christian faith. 5. Some critics feel Hester Prynne can be seen in many ways as the first great modern heroine in American literature. Do you agree? Why?  Her humility and sacrificial service towards others deems her to be a true heroic figure. She took the fall from society without challenging it as she knew she had done wrong.  She denied herself worldly pleasures to commit herself to trying to wash away the sin that she had committed long ago  Took the blame by herself and allowed her lover to continue their life unblemished. Had great strength of heart throughout her ordeal  The ‘crying crown’ or the ‘wounded healer’ symbol 6. The highly charged symbolism of The Scarlet Letter is one of its most distinctive features. Discuss the central symbol of the story—the scarlet letter itself. What does it signify? How does it function in the novel? How does its meaning change over time?  The scarlet letter itself symbolises guilt and condemnation from wider society. It separates the individual from the rest of the world in a perpetual punishment.  Symbol that is repeated throughout the book – A in the sky, A in the eal-glass, A on Dimmesdale’s chest  The fact that she must wear this token for life and not just for a limited time is meant to represent the sin is stamped into her heart as well as her clothing.  The symbol changes meaning overtime, even if not in the eyes of her town but in Prynne’s herself. It stands as a chance to redeem herself in the eyes of God. A lifelong exercise to become a better person and a purer one than those that have committed the same crime have escaped the punishment of the letter. 7. Describe and discuss the character of Roger Chillingworth in the novel. What does he represent in terms of the larger themes explored by the book?  Wickedness overtook all that was logical and intelligent in his nature and thus his greatest assets became his downfall as he used them for darker purposes.  Roger encapsulates all that is soul destroying about revenge and anger. His evil intent at bringing down Dimmesdale and Prynne further into their pit of despair turns him into the devil’s advocate.

 Irony in the last name as “Chillingworth” gives overtones of a calculating and harsh character  Loses the will to live after Dimmesdale confesses his sin at the scaffolding. Soon does after. His death represents the death of vengeance, he withers without the opportunity to cause pain 8. How does Hester change over time in the novel—and how does she change in the eyes of the society around her?  Hester loses the life and vitality that she had once held. The “light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered-up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away leaving a bare and harsh outline.” It goes on to say how sad the transformation was as she covered her shining hair completely…. Some attribute had departed from her removing the soul of her character  Some people refused to acknowledge the token as its original meaning but instead titling it “Able” due to Prynne’s strength and zeal on everything she put her mind to.  Goes from being the femme fatale to the ‘angel in the house’ – being purely charitable. Her change comes from being lonely and still wider society does not recognise her change of heart straight away. 9. The priest in the story, Dimmesdale, is a figure of hypocrisy who preaches virtue from the pulpit and refuses to take his daughter’s hand in public—but pays a terrible personal price for his actions. What points do you think Hawthorne is trying to make about organised religion? How far is Dimmesdale responsible for his own actions and how much are the townsfolk responsible for forcing him into his position?  By denying the trouble that burdens his heart the most, the Reverend falls deeper and deeper into despair and is solely to blame for the decay that his heart, soul and body undergo. His physical illness is meant to mirror the damaged psychological and emotional state he is in as he can find no peace in his religious fervour without casting off the lie of virtue and purity he shielded himself with for years.  Hawthorne is underlining the hypocrisy of the church system whereby a Reverend with a white collar was trusted completely and yet hiding a secret sin, whilst the shamed with the “scarlet letter” were the most open and trustworthy. Too much faith was placed in rank and position instead of the individual themselves and the actions and deeds that they had committed. 10. Because the novel is set before the time in which he is writing, Hawthorne deliberately uses an old-fashioned style with some archaic language. Do you find this effective or a distraction? What is Hawthorne trying to say about his own time through writing about the past?  The use of archaic and old-fashioned lexical choices and grammatical constructions strengthen the link between the importance of religious chastity and the time the story is set in. It adds another dimension to the novel as the language is often eloquent and philosophical, aiding the underlying messages of forgiveness and redemption that hawthorn is trying to convey.  Legendary: folk/fairy tale, ‘critical distance’ for the reader

11. The novel contains hints, early on, that Hester is descended from an impoverished but formerly noble family in England: "She saw again her native village, in Old England, and her paternal home: a decayed house of gray stone, with a poverty-stricken aspect, but retaining a half obliterated shield of arms over the portal, in token of antique gentility." There is a suggestion, toward the end, that Pearl may have returned to these roots by marrying into a wealthy European family, possibly nobility. What role, more generally, does class play in the novel?  Class plays an important role throughout the book as Prynne’s situation is continually linked to the drab and isolated cottage away from society. The ministers and members of the clergy however, live in comfort in their beamed, quant homes in the middle of the colony. Class is not only important materially but also the class of the people spiritually and religiously as everyone is the colony was divided and subdivided by the lives that they led and the positions they held.  Pearl’s alluded marriage into a family of wealth is almost ironic as it goes against the Puritan beliefs that God was only found through simple living… It also symbolises a return to a level of class in which she always rightly belonged to as her mother Prynne came from a family of status. Signifies a return to order and hence security for her life to come. 12. The final scaffold scene brings the various themes, characters, and plotlines woven throughout the novel to a powerful conclusion. Describe your response to this scene, and to the disputed event that occurs near its end.  Climatic end to all the themes that Hawthorne intertwined throughout the novel as the unspoken tension and misery that the Reverend felt throughout his life came pouring out in one emotion filled speech to the colony. A cathartic moment for the reader also as the agony the characters was finally laid to rest. His forthcoming death relays a sombre atmosphere and is meant to reinforce the moral of the story.  Dimmesdale regains his soul, Pearl gains her humanity, Chillingworth loses his victims, and Hester loses her dreams of being accepted 13. “It was strange, the way in which Pearl stood, looking so stedfastly at them through the dim medium of the forest-gloom; herself, meanwhile, all glorified with a ray of sunshine, that was attracted thitherward as by a certain sympathy. In the brook beneath stood another child,—another and the same,—with likewise its ray of golden light. Hester felt herself, in some indistinct and tantalizing manner, estranged from Pearl; as if the child, in her lonely ramble through the forest, had strayed out of the sphere in which she and her mother dwelt together, and was now vainly seeking to return to it” (Hawthorne 133). a. How does Hawthorne use the American landscape to convey feelings of national pride to his audience?  Hawthorne expresses the beauty of the forest in a manner of enchantment. Not only through his use of imaginative and figurative language such as “glorified”, “ray of sunshine” and “ray of golden light” but also through the elf-child herself as a flighty and magical way of prancing through the forest is meant to support and air of enchantment and perfection to the eerie American forest.

 Furthermore, terms such as “golden” and “sunlight” lend an almost heavenly aspect to the scene as the spot has sweet light shining down on it. b. Does Hawthorne’s view of nature correspond with the Puritan view of nature?  Nature is almost like a character, personified as listening, commenting on, and interacting with the other characters. At the same time, it can be menacing. The Puritan community is like an island surrounded by nature – portrayed as threatening unless controlled?  Puritans believed there was a divide between grace and nature. Grace must permeate nature and be brought side by side. Hawthorne uses nature as a link to the revival of Prynne’s life. Through her escapism into nature, she found herself again and became an increasingly whole person. Pearl was one with nature as her ‘wildness’ blended in with the creatures of the forest as she played with flowers in her hair. c. What does that tell us about their society?  Rigid religion permeated every element of their lives. Anything that was portrayed to be outside of the perfect rigidity of their system was classed as something that must be overcome or harnessed for a great purpose.  Their society was very wary and judgemental, fearing the smallest elements that did not fit with their life view. They did not see nature as a beautiful gift but almost as a supernatural power capable of temptation....