What type of book is scarlet letter

Hester, hearing the rumors that she may lose Pearl, goes to speak to Governor Bellingham. With him are Reverends Wilson and Dimmesdale. When Wilson questions Pearl about her catechism, she refuses to answer, even though she knows the correct response, thus jeopardizing her guardianship.

Hester appeals to Reverend Dimmesdale in desperation, and the minister persuades the governor to let Pearl remain in Hester's care. Because Reverend Dimmesdale's health has begun to fail, the townspeople are happy to have Chillingworth, a newly arrived physician, take up lodgings with their beloved minister.

Being in such close contact with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth begins to suspect that the minister's illness is the result of some unconfessed guilt. He applies psychological pressure to the minister because he suspects Dimmesdale to be Pearl's father. One evening, pulling the sleeping Dimmesdale's vestment aside, Chillingworth sees something startling on the sleeping minister's pale chest: a scarlet A.

Tormented by his guilty conscience, Dimmesdale goes to the square where Hester was punished years earlier. Climbing the scaffold, he sees Hester and Pearl and calls to them to join him. He admits his guilt to them but cannot find the courage to do so publicly.

Suddenly Dimmesdale sees a meteor forming what appears to be a gigantic A in the sky; simultaneously, Pearl points toward the shadowy figure of Roger Chillingworth.

Hester, shocked by Dimmesdale's deterioration, decides to obtain a release from her vow of silence to her husband. In her discussion of this with Chillingworth, she tells him his obsession with revenge must be stopped in order to save his own soul. Example : "Thus we seem to see that, as regarded Hester Prynne, the whole seven years of outlaw and ignominy had been little other than a preparation for this very hour.

Definition : unquestionable, impossible to doubt. Example : "But, in that early severity of the Puritan character, an inference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn. Definition : pedantic literary writings; narrow-minded scholarly works that adhere to certain arbitrary rules and forms. Example : "Now it was, that the lucubrations of my ancient predecessor, Mr. Surveyor Pue, came into play. Definition : a civil officer or judge who deals with minor offenses.

Example : "No longer ago than yestereve, a magistrate , a wise and godly man, was discoursing of your affairs, Mistress Hester, and whispered me that there had been question concerning you in the council.

Definition : a person who deceives others, especially in order to trick them out of their money; a charlatan. Example : "I feared the woman had no better thought than to make a mountebank of her child! Definition : perhaps. Example : " Peradventure the guilty one stands looking on at this sad spectacle, unknown of man, and forgetting that God sees him. Definition : dreamlike or fantastical in appearance. Example : "Possibly, it was an instinctive device of her spirit, to relieve itself, by the exhibition of these phantasmagoric forms, from the cruel weight and hardness of the reality.

Definition : wooden device with openings for the hands and the head, used to confine minor offenders and display them for public scorn and ridicule. Example : "It was, in short, the platform of the pillory ; and above it rose the framework of that instrument of discipline, so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it up to the public gaze.

Definition : a colonnade or covered ambulatory at the entrance of a building. Example : "Its front is ornamented with a portico of half a dozen wooden pillars, supporting a balcony, beneath which a flight of wide granite steps descends towards the street.

When Hester dies, she is buried next to Dimmesdale. Ace your assignments with our guide to The Scarlet Letter! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Did Hester ever love Chillingworth? What type of work does Chillingworth take on in New England? What does Dimmesdale believe he sees when the meteor lights up the night sky? How does Pearl react when she first sees her mother without the scarlet A? What makes Hester and Reverend Dimmesdale finally feel hope about their future? Why does Hester choose the forest to meet Dimmesdale and Chillingworth?

What does the last sentence of the novel mean? Society Empathy. What does the last sentence of the novel mean? Society Empathy. Literary Devices Genre. Romance, Historical novel Romance In combining realistic and imaginative elements to tell a moving and dreamlike story, The Scarlet Letter is an example of the romance genre.

Historical Novel The Scarlet Letter is also a historical novel, in that it was written in but set in the s and contains real-life settings, characters, and actual historical events. Previous section Setting Next section Allusions.