The Scarlet Letter: Chapter 3
Guess first. Then read the summary. Then open the answers.
Chapter questions
- Question 1 · Recall
What does the stranger do after he recognizes Hester?
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He quickly controls his visible distress and raises a finger to his lips to signal her to be silent.Reference: Chapter 3, the stranger in the crowd
- Question 2 · Recall
What does the townsman tell the stranger about Hester's husband?
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He was English by birth but had long lived in Amsterdam, and he sent her ahead to Boston but never arrived himself.Reference: Chapter 3, the stranger questions a townsman
- Question 3 · Recall
Which two ministers speak to Hester from the balcony?
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The elderly Reverend John Wilson, and then the young Reverend Dimmesdale beside him.Reference: Chapter 3, the ministers urge her to confess
- Question 4 · Why
Why does the stranger ask a townsman about Hester?
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He is a newcomer who says he was held in captivity far to the south and was just brought to town by an Indian to be redeemed, so he does not know who she is or what she did.Reference: Chapter 3, the stranger questions a townsman
- Question 5 · Why
What reason does the chapter give for Hester's refusal to name her child's father?
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None is stated outright. She says she will not speak, wishes she could bear his suffering as well as her own, and says her child will never know an earthly father. A reader might infer she is shielding him.Reference: Chapter 3, Hester answers the ministers
Chapter summary
Standing on the scaffold, Hester notices in the crowd a small man with a furrowed face and one shoulder higher than the other, dressed partly like a settler and partly like a native, with an Indian beside him. When he sees her, he is visibly shaken but masters himself and raises a finger to his lips.
He asks a townsman who she is and why she is being shamed. The townsman explains the scandal and says her husband, an English-born scholar long settled in Amsterdam, never arrived, and that the father of her three or four month old child is unknown. The stranger remarks gravely that she will be a living sermon against sin and says the father will be known.
Governor Bellingham watches from the balcony. Reverend John Wilson urges Hester to confess, and Reverend Dimmesdale makes an emotional appeal. Hester refuses to name the father. Wilson then preaches on sin, and Hester is taken back to prison.
Come back in a few days and try these 5 again before you open the answers.
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