Scarlet Letter Ch 19-20 PDF

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Summary

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Name_________Kezia Thomas_______

Period___5___

The Scarlet Letter Response Journal Chapter(s) ___19, 20___

Topic Title

Quotes/Evidence/Examples “The Child at the Brook-Side”

Reader’s Response/Commentary BEFORE READING: This chapter builds up from the last chapter and describes how Pearl reacts to Dimmesdale. AFTER READING: Pearl is reluctant to come near Dimmesdale and throws a tantrum because Hester threw away the scarlet letter.

“The Minister in a Maze” BEFORE READING: The minister is unsure if his plan with Hester is the right thing to do. He is wary about abandoning his mission to serve God and choose ordinary life.

Vocabulary

-“So great a vicissitude in his life could not at once be received as real.” (Hawthorne 193).

AFTER READING: The minister is in a daze because he is extremely happy at the thought of leaving the strict society. He is tempted by Satan to reveal his secret. -A change of circumstances or fortune. Typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant. Change in luck.

-Feeling, or expressing great -“Refreshed with a word of warm, fragrant, heaven-breathing pleasure or enthusiasm. Gospel truth from his beloved lips Ecstatic/Joyful. into her dulled, but rapturously attentive ear” (Hawthorne 197).

Discussion Notes (in class)

-“His natural good taste, and still more his buckramed habit of clerical decorum, that carried him safely through the latter crisis” (Hawthorne 199). Supernatural -“Or is she an elfish spirit, who, as the legends of our childhood taught us, is forbidden to cross a running stream?” (Hawthorne 188)

-“The witch-lady, nodding her high head-dress at him. “The next time, I pray you to allow me only a fair warning, and I shall be proud to bear you company” (Hawthorne 199).

Character

Minister Dimmesdale: “It was the same town as heretofore; but the same minister returned not from the forest” (Hawthorne 195).

-Stiffness of manner. Extreme preciseness or formality.

-Minister Dimmesdale does not know how to act around children and is even more afraid that the little child, he is going to meet, is his daughter. As Pearl is reluctant to come over to the side of the brook where Dimmesdale is, he covers up his embarrassment by asking a rhetorical question, if she was an elf. Although he does not know it, Pearl has been rightly compared to a wild elf before. This recognition shows that the father and daughter understand each other even if they are, at first, scared to meet the other. -Mrs. Hibbins is a selfproclaimed witch in the society. She goes to the forest, where she allegedly practices witchcraft. After Dimmesdale visit to the forest, the witch immediately recognizes him as a man turned evil. She can sense that he went to the forest where he did something evil. She is happy that one more person has joined the rebel group and is more than happy to accompany him into the forest for whatever evil he might have had planned next. Having been tortured mentally for seven years, Minister Dimmesdale is weak and unhappy. After his visit to the forest and talk with Hester, he is a changed man. Due to the

Hester Prynne: “I must bear its torture yet a little longer until we shall have left this region, and look back hither as to a land which we have dreamed of” (Hawthorne 190).

Pearl: “Strayed out of the sphere in which she and her mother dwelt together, and was now vainly seeking to return to it” (Hawthorne 188).

conversation and plan they made to run away together, the minister is a stronger, happier man. The plan to leave society behind gives him the strength and hope that he will escape Chillingworth’s punishment. He has come to terms with his sin and is ready to forgive himself, partially. He is changed man in that he is not the same miserable, fragile soul he was before; as their new plan gives him an escape from the cruel punishment, he was facing before. Hester Prynne, after her confession that she is still in love with Dimmesdale, is a happier, lighter person. As she got the courage to admit the truth, his response was also reason for her happiness. Their plan to run away together offers her hope and joy. She is overwhelmed at the thought of spending her life with two people she loves away from the criticizing eyes of the society. She is ready to live her life as is understood by the abandoning of the scarlet letter. Even as she is being forced to put it back on, she does not let the thought of her sin ruin her hope of freedom. Pearl, before Dimmesdale enter her life, was happy with her mother. Although she went into her tantrums at times, she loved her mother and they were happy together. Now that the minister and Hester are together, Pearl fears having to share her mother

Mistress Hibbins: “My good word will go far towards gaining any strange gentleman a fair reception” (Hawthorne 198).

Figurative Language

-“Thou canst leap like a young deer!” (Hawthorne 188).

-“The mid-ocean shall take it from my hand, and swallow it up for ever!” (Hawthorne 190).

with someone. She is even reluctant to meet the man before Hester puts on her scarlet letter, symbolizing her knowledge that the scarlet letter is a symbol of their sin. Even if it is subconsciously, she knows that the scarlet letter is the one thing that will stop them from being together and she uses it to keep her mother to herself. Mistress Hibbins is a witch-lady in the Puritan society. She is known for her visit to the forest where practices witchcraft. As soon as Dimmesdale comes back from the forest, she can sense that he has done something evil. She immediately recognizes evil, showing that she truly does have some evil presence in her. She offers her assistance in helping him. She is overjoyed that someone else has joined the dark side. -Pearl does not come over to where the minister and Hester are waiting. Hester is annoyed with her, because she was just telling Dimmesdale that she was a good child. She is embarrassed and angry. In her attempt to convince her to come over, she tries to gain Pearl’s confidence by praising her, comparing her skills to that of a deer. She hopes that Pearl will come over once she sees that it is indeed her mother. -Pearl insists on Hester retaining the scarlet letter and putting it back on. Although Hester is not happy about this,

-“Our Pearl is a fitful and fantastic little elf, sometimes” (Hawthorne 187).

Symbolism

-“In her was visible the tie that united them” (Hawthorne 186).

-“Hester next gathered up the heavy tresses of her hair, and confined them beneath her cap” (Hawthorne 190).

she reluctantly agrees. The metaphor translates her hope that the ocean will indeed separate her from the puritan society and thus, the scarlet letter. Their plan to run away included putting a lot of space between themselves and the society, and she is counting on that distance to keep her mind away from their sin. -Hester introduces Pearl to Minister Dimmesdale. Knowing Pearl, however, she asks him to not be so forward in speaking with her as she can be intolerant sometimes. She describes her daughter as weird and moody, rightfully comparing her to an elf. She wants both of them to love each other, so Hester reveals the truth about the peculiarity of Pearl’s nature to her own father in hopes that he will be able to change her character for the better. -Pearl was born out of Hester’s and Minister Dimmesdale’s sin. So she, is the bond that ties them together. She symbolizes their togetherness, without her, their tie is incomplete. If Pearl does not want to live with the minister, then there is less chance that Hester will be able to either. Hester is not going to abandon her daughter, so if Pearl does not accept Dimmesdale, their plan to run away together is doomed. -Hester letting out her hair from her scarf symbolizes her acceptance to being free. When she was condemned to

-“The dell was to be left in solitude among its dark, old trees, which would whisper long of what had passed there, and no mortal be the wiser” (Hawthorne 192).

Rhetoric

Purpose Questions

isolation, she lived very moderately. She did what she could to earn a livelihood, she did not enjoy life. Letting out her hair means that she is ready to let her beauty show. It shows her agreement to living her life.

-The forest is a symbol of their freedom. It is the place where Hester felt secure in talking to Minister Dimmesdale. Nobody is going to catch them together because it is a seclude forest. It is also associated with the twitch-lady and Indians, which is why the Puritans are reluctant in going there. Therefore, they can talk freely, void of any interference. It is also a place of refuge from the strict orders of the society as nobody is present to enforce those rules. “When hast thou been so sluggish Hester is anxious to introduce Minister Dimmesdale to Pearl before now? Here is a friend of because she knows how moody mine, who must be thy friend she can be. In her argument also” (Hawthorne 188). trying to convince Pearl to accept the minister, she uses rhetorical questions and his credibility to change his opinions about him. As she wants her to accept him, she refers to him as her friend whom she loves, building his credibility, intending that she should love him too. She also employs the use of a rhetorical question to make her think and feel bad about her behavior towards a respected man in order to get her to change her attitude toward the minister. The purpose of these chapters was to show Pearl and Minister Dimmesdale’s reaction to their plan to run away together. Does Chillingworth suspect their plan to run away together? Are

Personal

they ever going to confront each other about their secret agendas? It was interesting to see how Pearl reacted to Minister Dimmesdale as she has always been wary of him. Dimmesdale’s anxiousness was not surprising as he has always been doubtful of everything....