The Scarlet Letter By: Nathaniel Hawthorne By: Chelsey Meade, Alex Steinmehl, Tawsha Dewey, Taylor Valerio Chapter 12 The Minister’s Vigil

Characters -Hester Prynne: adulteress who must live her life in humiliation while trying to raise her young daughter -Pearl: Hester and Dimmesdale’s daughter who acts mischievously but is extremely perceptive as well as honest

Characters -Arthur Dimmesdale: the minister who has kept his secret of being Pearl’s father and the guilt is -Roger Chillingworth: Hester’s husband who enjoys inflicting pain on Dimmesdale with his implications because of his need for revenge

Summary Dimmesdale walks to the scaffold Hester and Pearl walk home from Governor Winthrop’s deathbed, spot Dimmesdale, and join him on the scaffold Pearl asks Dimmesdale when he will stand with them to finally confess his sin to the public, and Dimmesdale tells her he will join them on “the great judgment day” Dimmesdale then sees a dull red light in the shape of an immense A in the sky

Summary After, Pearl points toward Chillingworth, who was watching the trio, then Dimmesdale asks Hester who Chillingworth really is, but Hester remains silent in respect to her promise The next day after Dimmesdale’s sermon, one of Dimmesdale’s gloves is found on the scaffold, which was said to be there because of Satan’s mischief

Vocabulary Scourge: a whip used for flogging. Expiation: atonement; to pay a penalty for something. Geneva cloak: a black cloak that Calvinist ministers wore. Cope: a vestmentworn by priests for certain ceremonies. Here, anything that covers like a cope, a canopy over, or the sky. Scurrilous: vulgar, indecent, abusive. Foreboding: a strong inner feeling or notion of a future misfortune, evil, etc.; presentiment.

Vocabulary Somnambulism: an abnormal condition of sleeping which motor acts (as walking) are performed. Reverberations: the fact of being reverberated or reflected. Venerable: commanding respect because of great age or impressive dignity; worthy of veneration or reverence, as because of high office or noble character. Pestilence: something that is considered harmful, destructive, or evil.

Questions Where were Hester and Pearl coming from when they joined Dimmesdale on the scaffold? When did Dimmesdale say he would stand up with Hester and Pearl and confess his sin to the public? Why did Hester not reveal Chillingworth’s real identity to Dimmesdale?

Questions What was found after Dimmesdale’s sermon? Who was thought to have put it there? What does the A letter in the sky symbolize to Dimmesdale?