Scarlet Letter Notes

Hester Prynne
Hester: Hestier in Greek mythology, Zeus’s sister, a woman of beauty
hestier (hasty)
Prynne: prurient
prune: purify her sin
pry: probe into the interior of one’s heart

Arthur Dimmesdale
Arthur: Adam, adultery
Dimmesdale: dim + dale: dim interior (to hide one’s sin )

Roger Chillingworth
Roger: rogue (revenge)
Chillingworth: chilly (cruel, inhumane)
+ worth (induce Arthur to speak out his own sin)

Pearl: good, pure and precious


Scarlet: Definition

Function: adjective
1 of the color scarlet
2 a : grossly and glaringly offensive
Function: noun
Middle English scarlat, scarlet, from Anglo-French escarlet, from Medieval Latin scarlata, from Persian saqalAt, a kind of rich cloth
1 : scarlet cloth or clothes
2 : any of various bright reds
Main Entry: scarlet letter
Function: noun: a scarlet A worn as a punitive mark of adultery

Study Questions Chapter 1 - THE SCARLET LETTER

Chapter 1 “The Prison Door”









What colony is the setting for the novel?

Where in the colony does the opening chapter take place?

For what 2 “practical necessities” did the new colony set aside land?

Who is Anne Hutchinson? How does Hawthorne feel about her?

What 2 possible symbols does the rose have for the reader?

New Vocabulary

Reticent
Rigor
Alacrity
Timorous
Obtuse
Adroit
Deleterious
Brevity
Adulation
Histrionic
Hypochondriac

Mayflower Compact

IN THE name of God, Amen.

We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the 11 of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domine 1620.