The Scarlet Letter: Study Guide Ch.5-8 Chapter Five, at Her Needle” “Hester 1. Explain why there is real torture” as Hester leaves the prison than she experienced even “more on the day she was required to stand on the scaffold. 2. The narrator offers two reasons (theory A and theory B) why Hester doesn’t simply pack up and leave the Puritan community behind her. What are those reasons? 3. Hester herself offers a reason (theory C) why she does not leave . Please explain this reason. 4. What is the (courtesy of the of souls”) which Hester seizes upon passionate “idea” “tempter “with and desperate joy”? (As a follow-up question, how does Hester conceiver her own afterlife?) 5. Describe Hester’s new home. Can you find symbolic significance in Hawthorne’s descriptive details? 6. How does Hester manage to feed herself and her daughter, Pearl? 7. Examine how Hester clothes herself and (contrastingly) how she clothes . What is the significance of this contrast? 8. Explain how Hester all her superfluous means.” (80) What can we infer about her “bestow[s] character and her motives?
The Scarlet Letter: Study Guide Ch.5-8 Chapter Five, “Hester at Her Needle” 1. Explain why there is “more real torture” as Hester leaves the prison than she experienced even on the day she was required to stand on the scaffold. 2. The narrator offers two reasons (theory A and theory B) why Hester doesn’t simply pack up and leave the Puritan community behind her. What are those reasons? 3. Hester herself offers a reason (theory C) why she does not leave . Please explain this reason. 4. What is the “idea” (courtesy of the “tempter of souls”) which Hester seizes upon “with passionate and desperate joy”? (As a follow-up question, how does Hester conceiver her own afterlife?) 5. Describe Hester’s new home. Can you find symbolic significance in Hawthorne’s descriptive details? 6. How does Hester manage to feed herself and her daughter, Pearl? 7. Examine how Hester clothes herself and (contrastingly) how she clothes . What is the significance of this contrast? 8. Explain how Hester “bestow[s] all her superfluous means.” (80) What can we infer about her character and her motives?
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