Character Traits

The Scarlet Letter

Task #1:

Choose three adjectives that best describe your character

Hester

Beautiful Desperate

Young Lonely

Independent Fearful

Strong Tortured

Dignified Secretive

Nurturing

Skilled

PearlPassionate Troublesome

Imaginative Unloving

Violent Defiant

Sadistic Cold

Destructive Stubborn

Evil-spirited Insensitive

Aggressive Disobedient

Roger Chillingworth

Intelligent Vengeful

Perceptive Malicious

Clever Disfigured

Skillful Sneaky/Mischievous

Well-read Leech

Persistent Treacherous

Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale

Young Stressed

Respected Restless

Caring Guilty

Sick Weak

Task #2:

• Find three quotes from the novel to illustrate those qualities

• Write the quote and page number on chart

If you need help, try…

Hester—pgs. 55; 86-87

Pearl—pgs. 92-97; 102

Roger Chillingworth—pgs. 62-63; 76-77; 80; 115; 124

Rev. Dimmesdale—pgs. 68-69; 71; 112; 117; 123-125

Task #3:

• Share quotes with your group members.

Hester• “…she to give of her little substance to every demand of

poverty” (p. 167)• “None so self-devoted as Hester…” (p. 167)• “Hester’s nature showed itself warm and rich; a well-

spring of human tenderness” (p. 167)• “She was self-ordained a Sister of Mercy” (p. 167)• “It is our Hester,--the town’s own Hester, who is so kind

to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!” (p. 169)

Hester• “…the attractiveness of her person had undergone a

similar change…a sad transformation too...her rich and luxuriant hair had either been cut off, or was so completely hidden by a cap” (p. 169-170)

• “…there seemed to be no longer anything in Hester’s face for Love to dwell upon…nothing…that Passion would ever dream of clasping in its embrace…” (p. 170)

• “Standing alone in the world” (p. 170)

Pearl• “What, in Heaven’s name, is she? Is the imp altogether evil?

Hath she afffections?” (p. 138)• “Whether capable of good, I know not.” (p. 139)• “The child…looking up to the window, with a bright, but

naughty smile of mirth and intelligence, she threw one of the prickly burrs at the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale.” (p. 139)

• “Detecting his emotion, Pearl clapped her little hands in the most extravagant ecstacy.”(p. 139)

• “There was witchcraft in little Pearl’s eyes, and her face…wore that naughty smile which made its expression frequently so elfish.” (p. 160)

Pearl

• “…picked up her apron full of pebbles…pelting them…one little gray bird…with a broken wing” (p. 185)

• “But then the elf-child sighed, and gave up her sport; because it grieved her to have done harm to a little being that was as wild as the sea-breeze, or as wild as Pearl herself.” (p. 185)

• parkled, and prattled airily along her course.’ (p. 195)

Pearl

• “Pearl’s nature…had not the disease of sadness…” (p. 192)

• “Pearl resembled the brook, inasmuch as the current of her life gushed from a well-spring as mysterious, and had flowed through scenes shadowed as heavily with gloom. But unlike the little stream, she danced and sparkled, and prattled airily along her course.’ (p. 195)

Roger Chillingworth

• “had been calm in temperament, kindly…a pure and upright man…but as he proceeded, a terrible fascination, a kind of fierce, though still calm, necessity seized the old man within its gripe…” (p. 133)

• “He now dug into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a miner searching for gold” (p. 133)

• “Sometimes a light glimmered out of the physician’s eyes, burning blue and ominous, like the reflection of a furnace, or, let us say, like one of those gleams of ghastly fire…” (p. 133-134)

• “…yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already.” (p. 139)

Roger Chillingworth

• “…quiet depth of malice…which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy.” (p. 144)

• “…was not careful then…to hide the malevolence with which he looked upon the victim” (p. 162)

• “…the former aspect of an intellectual and studious man, calm and quiet, which…had altogether vanished, and been succeeded by an eager, searching, almost fierce, yet carefully guarded look” (p. 176)

• “…a glare of red light out of his eyes; as if the old man’s soul were on fire” (p. 177)

• “…old Roger Chillingworth…evidence of a man’s faculty of transforming himself into a devil…” (p. 177)

Rev. Dimmesdale• “…him suspicious of all mankind. Trusting no man as his

friend…” (p. 135)• “The sensitive clergyman shrunk, with nervous dread, from the

light missile…” (p. 139)• “…a bodily disease…be but a symptom of some ailment in the

spiritual part.” (p. 141)• “…emaciated and white-cheeked minister…a sickness…in your

spirit…” (p. 141)• “…all that guilty sorrow, hidden from the world” (p. 144)• “…achieved a brilliant popularity in his sacred office” (p. 146)• “His fame…on its upward slope” (p. 146)

Rev. Dimmesdale• “They deemed the young clergyman a miracle of holiness.”

(p. 148)• “…the agony with which this public veneration tortured

him!” (p. 148)• “He longed to speak out…and tell the people what he was.”

(pg. 148)• “…I…am utterly a pollution and a lie” (p. 149)• “The saint on earth!” (p. 149)• “…he loathed his miserable self!” (p. 150)• “constant introspection” (p. 150)

Rev. Dimmesdale• “He had been driven hither by the impulse of that

Remorse which dogged him everywhere, and whose own sister and closely linked companion was that Cowardice…” (p. 153)

• “…the young virgins who so idolized their minister…” (p. 157)

• “erudite clergyman” (p. 162)• “His nerve seemed absolutely destroyed…his moral

force…childish weakness” (p. 165)

Rev. Dimmesdale• “…the intense misery beneath which the minister

struggled” (p. 173)• “He looked haggard and feeble…nerveless despondency”

(p. 196)• “…listlessness in his gait; as if he saw no reason for

taking one step farther” (p. 196)• “To Hester’s eye, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale

exhibited no symptom of positive and vivacious suffering, except that…he kept his hand over his heart.” (p. 196)

Simile/Metaphor• “…they go about among their fellow-creatures, looking

pure as new-fallen snow…” (pg. 137)• “He now dug into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a

miner searching for gold.” (p. 133)• “Sometimes a light glimmered out of the physician’s

eyes, burning blue and ominous, like the reflection of a furnace…” (p. 133-134)

• “The soil where this dark miner was working had perchance shown indications that encouraged him.” (p. 134)

Simile/Metaphor• “He groped along as stealthily, with as cautious a tread,

and as wary an outlook, as a thief entering a chamber where a man lies only half asleep…” (p. 134)

• “…with purpose to steal the very treasure which this man guards as the apple of his eye.” (p. 134)

• “Pearl looked as beautiful as the day…” (p. 138)• “…one of those persons whose sleep, ordinarily, is as

light, as fitful, and as easily scared away, as a small bird hopping on a twig.” (p. 143)

• “He looked like a ghost…” (p. 154)

Simile/Metaphor• “those meteors…illuminated the dense medium of cloud

betwixt the sky and earth. The great vault brightened, like the dome of an immense lamp” (p. 159)

• “…a terrible machinery had been brought to bear, and was still operating, on Mr. Dimmesdale’s well-being and repose” (p. 165)

• “…the child flew away like a bird…” (p. 175)• “…once so wild, and even yet neither dead nor asleep,

but only imprisoned within the same tomblike heart?” (p. 188)