the scarlet letter

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Scarlet Letter
Class Activity: Role on the Wall
•Chapter IX-XI, discusses the relationship of Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. By this point in the story, both men have changed internally and externally. Create two large outlines of a body on poster paper to represent Chillingworth and Dimmesdale.
•Inside the outline, write factors that affect the character internally (guilt, jealousy, spirituality, knowledge, etc.)
•Around the outside of the outline, write factors that affect the character externally (role in the community, laws, duty, etc.)
•On the outline itself, identify the factors that have changed these characters over time. Write examples of how these factors are physically affecting the
characters (pale face, holds hand on heart, “visage sooty with smoke,” etc.)
Quote directly from the text, as well as summarize in your own words.
Assignment:
•Option I:Epitaph is a short, one-sentence description of a person on their gravestone.
Write an epitaph for one or more of the following characters:
•Hester,
•Dimmesdale
•Chillingworth.
•Option II: Read and analyze obituaries from the local newspaper, paying attention to form, structure, and generic conventions. Write a 3 paragraph obituary(讣告) for one of the characters from The Scarlet Letter, choosing a point of view to write the obituary from—
• A modern feminist
• A Puritan preacher
•An Algonquin Indian
•Pearl
•Option III: News Report. The narrator admits that witnesses to Reverend Dimmesdale’s confession and subsequent collapse had different ideas about what exactly happened.
•Suppose that you are a television reporter assigned to the election day
events.
•You, too, witness the scene on the scaffold. Write the text for the live
report you make from the base of the scaffold right after Dimmesdale
dies.
•Share your works aloud in a dramatic reading in next class.
•Hawthorne has included a good bit of irony in The Scarlet Letter. Explore the following occurrences and remark on their ironic effects.
1.Roger Chillingworth is punished more than Hester.
2.Pearl is dressed as a lady of great wealth, and she eventually becomes a lady of
great wealth.
3.Even though Hester could have left Boston, she chooses to remain in the town
where she committed and was punished for her sin.
4.Pearl’s name implies purity and serenity.
5.The scarlet letter gains Hester respect in the community.
6.Dimmesdale was deceived by Chillingworth because “Trusting no man as his
friend, he could not recognize his enemy when the latter actually appeared.” Essay questions
1.Is Arthur Dimmesdale a remarkably strong character to have carried his burden of guilt
for so many years? Or was he weak for not having the courage to confess? Given what we know about him, would he have been able to “run away” with Hester and Pearl and start a new life? Discuss these issues with other members of your group. Cite evidence
from the text to support your opinions.
2.Why does Chillingworth choose to torture Dimmesdale and Hester when he could simply
reveal that he is Hester’s husband? What does this imply about justice? About evil?
3.How do the townspeople change their attitude toward Hester over time? Why do you
think this happens?
4.Do you think Hawthorne has an optimistic or pessimistic attitude about human nature?
What evidence supports your idea?。