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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Dimmesdale's "own red stigma"?
(a) His guilt.
(b) A scarlet letter he wears underneath his jacket.
(c) Pearl.
(d) An "A" carved in his chest.

2. What, according to many of the townspeople who have come to appreciate Hester, should the A stand for?
(a) Addled.
(b) Able.
(c) Aloof.
(d) Angel.

3. Dimmesdale claims that his scarlet letter burns how?
(a) On his soul.
(b) In God's eyes.
(c) On the inside.
(d) In secret.

4. What does Pearl do when Dimmesdale kisses her?
(a) She washes it off.
(b) She kisses him back.
(c) She laughs.
(d) She wipes it on Hester's scarlet letter.

5. While she is playing, Pearl makes a little boat out of what?
(a) Acorns.
(b) Birch bark.
(c) Sea weed.
(d) Sand dollars.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is said to haunt the forest outside town, carrying a big, heavy book with him?

2. Why, according to Pearl, does sunshine "run away and hide itself" from Hester?

3. Where is the ship the Spanish Main sailing?

4. Who is said to ride "with Satan through the air?"

5. Which of the following creatures is not mentioned while Pearl plays on the shore?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do Hester and Pearl gather with other townspeople at the beginning of Chapter 21?

2. In Chapter 16, Hester changes her story to Pearl about the significance of the scarlet letter. What does she say about the letter in Chapter 16?

3. What, according to the narrator, enlivened the public holiday with "some diversity of hue?"

4. In Chapter 13, Hawthorne says that some people would think that Hester's scarlet letter stands for "Able." Why?

5. Why does Hawthorne describe Pearl, in Chapter 19, as a "living hieroglyphic."

6. Many people pass Dimmesdale by in this chapter; why are so many people up so late and walking about?

7. What kinds of thoughts occur to Dimmesdale when he sees a deacon on the way home in Chapter 20 and why?

8. What does Pearl do with the seaweed she finds, and what does it show about her as a character?

9. Where does Dimmesdale go at the beginning of Chapter 12, and why?

10. When Dimmesdale refuses to travel and quit his post as minister, how does Hester change his mind?

(see the answer keys)

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