1. The Scarlet Letter

2. Analysis of characters
Hester Prynne
the main characters
Arthur Dimmesdale
Roger Chillingworth

3. Major characters in The Scarlet Letter
Roger Chillingworth
Arthur Dimmesdale
lover
husband
Hester Prynne
daughter
Pearl

4. Major characters in The Scarlet Letter
attractive, appealing, intelligent, capable
Passionate — has a love affair with Dimmesdale
strong and stoic —she endures years of shame and scorn
Hester
contemplative— speculates on human nature, social organization, and larger moral questions.
maternal—moderates her tendency to be rash; cares for the poor and brings them food and clothing
a protofeminist mother figure to the women of the community

5. Why does she repeatedly refuse to stop wearing the letter?
A--“her passport into regions where other women dared not tread”
her behavior
She desires to determine her own identity rather than to allow others to determine it for her
she is determined to transform its meaning through her actions and her own self-perception
She is unwilling to erase her past deed and her past decisions
She is not the example of sin that she was once intended to be. Rather, she is an example of redemption and self-empowerment.

6. What makes Dimmesdale’s mental anguish?
1.Hester takes all of the blame for their shared sin, leading to his guilty conscience and resultant mental anguish.
2.The townspeople do not believe Dimmesdale’s protestations of sinfulness. This drives Dimmesdale to further internalize his guilt and self-punishment and leads to still more deterioration in his physical and spiritual condition.

7. Chillingworth true evil his name --- a man deficient in human warmth
His appearance--- twisted, stooped, deformed shoulders--- his distorted soul
His identity of a “leech”---he feeds on the vitality of others as a way of energizing his own projects.
He is obsessed with revenge---after Dimmesdale dies, Chillingworth no longer has a victim. Having lost the objects of his revenge, the leech has no choice but to die.

8. Themes of The Scarlet Letter
Doesn’t intend to tell a love story or a story of sin
Hawthorne--
assumes the universality of guilt
explores the complexities and ambiguities of man’s choices
focuses his attention on the moral, emotional, and psychological effects of the sin on the people

9. Everybody is potentially a sinner, and great moral courage is indispensable for the improvement of human nature.
Hawthorne
The book is an examination of the forces that shape Hester and the transformations those forces effect, a hymn on the moral growth of the woman who is sinned against.

10. sinners
Hester Dimmesdale Chillingworth
confesses her guilt, faces the future optimistically，helps others
hides his guilt first
morally degrades by his pursuit of revenge
undergoes the physical and spiritual torments
is able to construct her life, wins a moral success
die
moral growth
angel

11. Writing Characteristics
1) It is a cultural allegory and structurally compact.
twenty-four chapters
are knitted together by
scaffold scenes.
In the beginning, the middle, and the end,
all the four major characters are at the scene.

12. Writing Characteristics
2) Hawthorne's ambiguity
People offer different views concerning the sign of the letter A on the dead minister's chest. The author doesn't give his views. So, people come up with different interpretations.

13. Writing Characteristics
3) It is a kind of romance.
Two lovers come together, and will be finally united in death.
4) Hawthorne uses the supernatural.
The appearance of the symbol A in the sky is in twilight atmosphere. All things, natural or otherwise, may become probable.

14. Writing Characteristics
5) His use of symbols
the central symbol
the scarlet letter “A”
Adultery
Able
Angel
a token of shame
“A” appears in the sky

15. What does “A” mean to the chief characters respectively?
For Puritan society, it just means punishment.
For Hester, it means unjust humiliation.
For Dimmesdale, it’s a reminder of his own sin.
For Chillingworth, it’s a request for revenge.
For Pearl, it’s nothing but a beautiful cloth.
It is a guide for Hester to go to heaven, and Dimmesdale to hell.