The Forest Scene

1. The Forest Scene Chapter 16 : “A Forest Walk” Chapter 17 : “The Pastor and his Parishioner” Chapter 18 : “A Flood of Sunshine” Chapter 19 : “The Child at the Brookside”

2. Chapter 16: AForest Walk • Hester chooses to talk to Dimmesdale in the forest. • She couldn’t think of any “narrower privacy than beneath the open sky” = IRONY • It is ironic that they find privacy in the most open of spaces. SYMBOLISM • The footpath leading into the forest is symbolic of Hester’s moral wilderness • The footpath travels into the mystery of the forest, so overgrown with trees, nearly impossible for light to break through.

3. THE SUNSHINE Personification • Pearl points out to Hester that the sunshine runs away from her mother but not from her; Pearl says it is because of the “A” on Hester’s bosom. Symbolism • This symbolizes Pearl’s innocence and Hester’s sin.

5. Symbolism and Personification of: The Brook Listening Activity: Listen to page 194. Write down all imagery (descriptive language) that personifies the brook. Reading Comprehension and Paraphrasing: Read the passage about Pearl and Nature from this link and explain how Pearl is compared to the brook.

6. NATURE IMAGERY: THE BROOK Personification Symbolism The brook is symbolic of Pearl. • Sad • Melancholy • Sorrow • Sighing and murmuring • Babbling • Gloomy • Lively • Voice of a young child • Witnessed a sad event

7. NATURE IMAGERY: THE BROOK Pearl is compared to the brook because. . . they are both childlike yet witnessed deep secrets. They are both sad because of the childhood they lost due to secrets and sin. Again, Pearl is symbolically connected with an object from nature to show her connection to the wild and the free.

8. Symbolism: The Black Man and his Book • Pearl heard that the devil walks around with a book in which people sign away their souls. • Pearl asks Hester if Hester has ever met the Black Man, and Hester answers that she did once—and the scarlet letter is his mark • Pearl also questions whether Dimmesdale has met the Black Man, and if that is the reason why he always covers his heart with hand. • The black man and the book SYMBOLIZE the sinful choices people make. Hester did not actually meet the devil, but she did choose to sin.

9. Characterization Dimmesdale Pearl She is devilishly happy and does what she wants; she does not seem to be afraid of anything. Pearl is happiest in the forest; she feels welcomed and loved by the animals and plants of the forest. • As he walks along the forest path he thinks no one can see him so he does not hide his true self. • He looked “haggard and feeble” and had a “listlessness in his gait” (196). • Hester sends Pearl off to play in the forest as Dimmesdale approaches.

10. Chapter 17: “The Pastor and His Parishioner” • Dimmesdale tells Hester he has been miserable for seven years. • They are awkward together at first. • Hester tells Dimmesdale that Chillingworth is really her husband. This makes Dimmesdale furious. Does he has a right to be?

11. Dimmesdale eventually forgives Hester for keeping it a secret, understanding why. • Dimmesdale tells Hester that Chillingworth is a bigger sinner than they are because Chillingworth’s crime is premeditated, whereas Hester and Dimmesdale committed their crime never meaning to hurt anyone. • Dimmesdale is afraid Chillingworth will tell the entire town he is Hester’s husband and that Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father, but Hester assures him that Chillingworth would not do so because he is only seeking revenge against Dimmesdale

12. Creation of MOOD The mood that is created on the first two pages of this chapter is ____________. Hawthorne uses words like ________________, _______________, and ______________ in order to set this mood (197-198). dreary and eerie chill ghost cold

13. Dimmesdale’s Hypocrisy . Explain the quotation, “What can a ruined soul, like mine, effect towards the redemption of other souls?” (199). Hester tells Dimmesdale that he should find peace in the way that his parishioners worship him, but Dimmesdale thinks that he can not help others find redemption from sin when his own soul has been destroyed by his sin.

14. Hester’s Inner Peace Why does Hester’s ‘A’ bring her peace while Dimmesdale’s brings him pain? Quotation: “Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!” Explanation: Hester does not have the burden of hiding sin. Who in modern society have we forgiven for his/her sins?

15. The Worse of the Sins • Hester confesses to Dimmesdale that Chillingworth is her husband. He is, at first, irate, but then he forgives her. • According to Arthur Dimmesdale, whose sin is greater and why? Quotation: “That old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!” (203). • Explanation: Chillingworth’s sin of revenge is worse because he intentionally sought to hurt another person. Hester and Dimmesdale did not hurt anyone.

16. IRONY • Dimmesdale is too weak (both physically and emotionally) to come up with a solution. • He once again relies upon Hester to be the strong one. • Women were never considered the strong or smart ones, however, Hester has been strong and smart since the opening scaffold scene. • The Scarlet Letter has allowed Hester to think outside of Puritan Law. • Hester presents two solutions: • go off into the forest and away from Boston • get on a boat, go to Europe, change his name and start a new life

17. Chapter 18: AFlood of Sunshine • The cowardly and weakly Dimmesdale is afraid to start anew ALONE! • Hester, still in love with the cowardly minister—a leader in his community, a “godly” and highly revered man—decides she and Pearl will go with him. • Hester believes they have more than paid for their sin and deserve to start over. • Dimmesdale believes he will pay for his sins when he dies anyway, therefore he will live the remainder of his life with Hester and Pearl in happiness. • Hester unclasps the scarlet letter from her bosom and threw it into the distance • Her beauty came back through the “magic” (romanticism) of the past hour • Does she regret what she did? Has she ever demonstrated remorse in any way? Why does she love Dimmesdale so much? • In the last scene of the chapter, Pearl is described to be in one with nature.

18. What effect does their decision have on: Dimmesdale Hester Quotation: “Oh, exquisite relief! She had not know the weight, until she felt the freedom!” Explanation: The idea of being free of the scarlet letter is like a heavy weight off of Hester. • Quotation: “‘Do I feel joy again?’ cried he, wondering at himself … ‘This is already the better life!’” (211). • Explanation: Dimmesdale feels joy for the first time in seven years.

19. Describe Hester once she removes her cap and ‘A’. How does the mood change? Hester removes her Puritan Cap and the Scarlet Letter. It lands next to the brook. Symbolically, she is removing the constraints of Puritan Law and society. The sunlight bursts through the trees and shines upon her hair. Hester is once again beautiful

20. Foreshadowing The letter does not land in the water; it does not get carried away, foreshadowing they will never get rid of the ‘A.’

22. What is symbolic about the brook in this chapter? Why does the scarlet letter land near it? The brook represents the divide between Hester and Dimmesdale’s world of secrecy and Pearl’s world of truth. The scarlet letter creates that divide.

23. Sketch a picture of Pearl on these last pages of the chapter. Pearl had not found the hour pass wearisomely, while her mother sat talking with the clergyman. The great black forest—stern as it showed itself to those who brought the guilt and troubles of the world into its bosom — became the playmate of the lonely infant, as well as it knew how. Sombre as it was, it put on the kindest of its moods to welcome her. It offered her the partridge-berries, the growth of the preceding autumn, but ripening only in the spring, and now red as drops of blood upon the withered leaves. These Pearl gathered, and was pleased with their wild flavor. The small denizens of the wilderness hardly took pains to move out of her path. A partridge, indeed, with a brood of ten behind her, ran forward threateningly, but soon repented of her fierceness, and clucked to her young ones not to be afraid. A pigeon, alone on a low branch, allowed Pearl to come beneath, and uttered a sound as much of greeting as alarm. A squirrel, from the lofty depths of his domestic tree, chattered either in anger or merriment,—for a squirrel is such a choleric and humorous little personage, that it is hard to distinguish between his moods,—so he chattered at the child, and flung down a nut upon her head. It was a last year's nut, and already gnawed by his sharp tooth. A fox, startled from his sleep by her light footstep on the leaves, looked inquisitively at Pearl, as doubting whether it were better to steal off, or renew his nap on the same spot. A wolf, it is said,—but here the tale has surely lapsed into the improbable,—came up, and smelt of Pearl's robe, and offered his savage head to be patted by her hand. The truth seems to be, however, that the mother-forest, and these wild things which it nourished, all recognized a kindred wildness in the human child.

24. And she was gentler here than in the grassy-margined streets of the settlement, or in her mother's cottage. The flowers appeared to know it; and one and another whispered as she passed, “Adorn thyself with me, thou beautiful child, adorn thyself with me!”—and, to please them, Pearl gathered the violets, and anemones, and columbines, and some twigs of the freshest green, which the old trees held down before her eyes. With these she decorated her hair, and her young waist, and became a nymph-child, or an infant dryad, or whatever else was in closest sympathy with the antique wood. In such guise had Pearl adorned herself, when she heard her mother's voice, and came slowly back.

25. Chapter 19: The Child attheBrookside • Dimmesdale admits children do not usually like him • He admits to have shrunken away from Pearl in the past because of how much they resemble each other. • Pearl is one side of the brook, her parents are on the other • Pearl is the Scarlet Letter, when she sees the Letter tossed aside, she feels tossed aside. • She has never seen her mother without the ‘A’ – Hester is the ‘A’ – she cannot escape it. • Pearl refuses to cross to the other side of the brook until Hester puts the ‘A’ back on.

27. Hester puts the Puritan cap and the Scarlet Letter back on to stop Pearl’s temper tantrum. • Pearl crosses the brook and joins her parents.

28. SYMBOLISM • Dimmesdale kisses Pearl on the forehead • She runs to the brook and washes the kiss off. • The kiss is symbolically carried away by the brook. • (Donna’s poem)

29. Reestablishment of Mood • And now this fateful interview had come to a close. The dell was to be left a solitude among its dark, old trees, which, with their multitudinous tongues, would whisper long of what had passed there, and no mortal be the wiser. And the melancholy brook would add this other tale to the mystery with which its little heart was already overburdened, and whereof it still kept up a murmuring babble, with not a whit more cheerfulness of tone than for ages heretofore.