The Scarlet Letter Chapters XX - XXI Reading Tags
DUE BY 8am ON FRIDAY, 12/8! Analyze the tags for Chapters XX - XXI in this blog. Use the following format in your analysis of each tag:
1. Tag and page number where the tag can be found
A. Author/Facts (does not have to be in complete sentences)
oFacts from the novel according to the tag
oWho?, What?, When?, Where?
oDefine new words
oParaphrase/Summary
B. Reader/Response (SHOULD BE IN COMPLETE SENTENCES)
oHow? Why?
oApplication
oWhat do you think about the situation surrounding the tag?
oRespond to the quote. oPredictions/Questions
DON'T FORGET TO BRING A HARD COPY TO CLASS ON THE DAY THE TAGS ARE DUE IN ORDER TO GET YOUR POINTS!
1. Tag and page number where the tag can be found
A. Author/Facts (does not have to be in complete sentences)
oFacts from the novel according to the tag
oWho?, What?, When?, Where?
oDefine new words
oParaphrase/Summary
B. Reader/Response (SHOULD BE IN COMPLETE SENTENCES)
oHow? Why?
oApplication
oWhat do you think about the situation surrounding the tag?
oRespond to the quote. oPredictions/Questions
DON'T FORGET TO BRING A HARD COPY TO CLASS ON THE DAY THE TAGS ARE DUE IN ORDER TO GET YOUR POINTS!
posted by Jenni Vega | 7:57 AM
2 Comments:
27. “I left him yonder in the forest…” (171)
a. Author/Facts
• Dimmsdale is leaving the forest where he has just had the conversation with Hester. He turns around and sees Pearl dancing and acting more herself now that he has left. Dimmsdale thinks over the plans that he and Hester have made regarding there getaway to Europe. Hester, from doing her good deeds, has become friends with the captain and crew of a ship that is going to leave for Europe in four days, one day after Dimmsdale’s Election Speech which is the treasured duty of a clergyman.
• Dimmsdale starts to prance through the woods looking at everything differently. He has been so greatly freed from Chillingworth’s grip that he has realized the parallel grip of the Puritan community. Dimmsdale strives to be free of that as well, almost speaking blasphemy to another minister.
• Dimmsdale realizes that he is by no means the same man and I think frightens Chillingworth a little with his change. Chillingworth does not ask him yet if Hester has revealed to him his true identity though it is quite clear that he has been freed of something.
b. Reader Response
Dimmsdale, though he was losing is mind before, I think is now going crazy. He is drunk with the freedom of a huge guilty weight being completely removed from his chest. Not only that weight, though, but the whole guilty religious perfection weight that Dimmsdale has suffered under his whole entire life has been removed in one day. He doesn’t know what else to do except defy all that he has ever known and do things to them considered illegal.
28. Speech change (176)
a. Author/Facts
• Dimmsdale, with his new change of mind, totally rewrites his speech that he is going to use for the Election Day. He knows that his speech is going to be his last public event before he and Hester leave on the boat for Europe. He throws the old speech into the fire and then passionately and under what he calls inspiration a long ranting of a new speech. It also says that when he wakes from staying up very late, he realizes just how much he wrote the night before.
b. Reader Response
I think that with Dimmsdale’s new freedom, he also sees his religion very, very differently. He no longer sees this speech as just his farewell but as the first speech since he is free of the people he is speaking to. I think that he realizes how wrong Puritan views are, but is going about what to do kind of extremely. He should not go out and defy everything that he has ever known, but instead correct what is wrong and go about living the right way. Dimmsdale has redone his speech and I am nervous to see what the crowd thinks about it and what he has written about. Nothing short of passion comes from passion, which is the awakened inspiration that Dimmsdale was under when he rewrote his speech.
29. “he knows us not…” (179)
a. Author/Facts
• Pearl and Hester travel to the Election Day procession together. Pearl is extravagantly dressed, and there are many people there. Hawthorn begins to describe the differences in people there and how the Puritan community has forbidden and forgotten merriment that their English ancestors had, and could only attempt to obtain it in their political celebrations.
• Pearl asks if the minister, meaning Dimmsdale, would be in the procession. When Hester says yes, she asks if he will stretch his hands out to her today in public like he did in the woods. Hester tells Pearl that Dimmsdale will not acknowledge them, nor should they acknowledge him.
b. Reader Response
It must be frustrating for a seven year old to see a man frequently in private who your mother seems to have a connection with, and with whom you have a connection too but will not be told of it, then is totally ignored by that person in public. I would be a little confused. Also, since Pearl is this all knowing child, she is also getting at some truth. Dimmsdale will still not publicly acknowledge his mistake. Even though he is free from the religious grip, he still either wants to keep his reputation or is still afraid.
30. Another passenger (182-183)
a. Author/Facts
• Hawthorn begins to describe the ship captain talking to Chillingworth in the crowd, then walk over to Hester. The captain continues to tell Hester that they have another passenger coming and that it is Chillingworth. Chillingworth had told the captain that he was a member of Hester's party.
• When Hester looks across the crowd at Chillingworth he just stands there smiling at her. It does not reveal how he found out or if he guessed then discovered he was right.
b. Reader Response
I cannot believe that Chillingworth figured out what they were going to do. Something good was finally going to happen in this novel and that mean old Chillingworth ruined the whole thing by nosing around in his wife’s business. I knew through that weird piece of foreshadowing earlier in the book that something bad would happen, but I didn’t think that Chillingworth would be on the boat with them. I really don’t like him. He ruins everything. Also, cold Hester and Dimmsdale get married or would they just have to pretend that they were married when they escaped to England?
Katherine Leigh Miller
27. Dimmesdale goes insane (171-173)
A. Author/Facts
-Dimmesdale leaves the forest after talking to Hester.
-While he is walking down the street, he sees people from the church that he normally sees but he doesn't act as he normally would around them.
-Dimmesdale suppresses the urge to do different things to them and cannot talk to them as he usually does.
-He even has to suppress the urge to say some curse words to some little puritan kids.
B. Reader/Response
-The talk with Hester obviously gave him a very strong feeling of independence.
-He feels free from the Puritan boundaries that held him to a certain behavior pattern previously.
-The fact that he is able to talk to these members of his church, think these thoughts, and not even have a reaction raises the question as to whether he would have done much worse had he been in Hester's position.
-I previously thought that the fact that Hester was not in the position of religious prominence that Dimmesdale didn't mean anything in regards to their actions following the adultery.
-However, after what this chapter has just shown us, I might be wrong.
28."Have I then sold myself to the fiend whom...this hag has chosen for her prince and master? (174)
A. Author/Facts
-After doing all of these things, Dimmesdale's conscience finally kicks in and he starts wondering why he has been doing these kinds of things.
-Mistress Hibbens seems to know that he has been in the forest and tells him that he should tell her when he's going to it next so that she can join him.
-Dimmesdale wonders that if just by going into the forest he has signed himself over to the devil's cause.
B. Reader/Response
-Dimmesdale's conscience from all of his years of preaching finally starts and he defends himself when he talks to Mistress Hibbens.
-The way she talks to him obviously makes him very uncomfortable.
-It makes him question whether he is still even a Christian.
-The obvious connection is made to the forest and people beginning to act differently.
-This shows how much easier it is to follow the laws of nature than the laws of man.
29. "Look your last upon the scarlet letter and its wearer" (178)
A. Author/Facts
-Hester was walking through the town for what she assumed to be the last time.
-She is headed for the ship that she hopes will deliver her and Dimmesdale to freedom from the Puritans in England.
-Pearl again asks if Dimmesdale will be able to hold hands with them and Hester answers that he can't do that yet.
-Pearl says that Dimmesdale is a strange and sad man.
B. Reader/Response
-It is obvious that Hester is extremely excited about the opportunity to break free of the Puritan's hold on her.
-She is ready to be free of their judgments and their punishments and she wants to tell it to the world.
-Pearl's statement is basically just a repeat of her assessment of Dimmesdale from earlier chapters.
-She still doesn't quite understand who he is or why he does what he does.
30. She beheld Chillingworth himself...smiling at her (183)
Author/Facts
-Hester reaches the ship and sees Chillingworth talking to the ship's captain.
-She walks up to the ship's captain and he tells her that there is no chance of disease on this ship because they have another doctor coming.
-She is surprised and asks him who it is.
-He tells her that it is Chillingworth and Hester sees Chillingworth smiling at her from across the dock.
B. Reader/Response
-Hester thinks that she is home free but she had to have a sinking feeling in her stomach when she saw Chillingworth talking to her ship's captain.
-How did he find out which one was her's anyway?
-If I were her than I would just try to go to England some other time. There is no way that I would go with him.
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