Tuesday 6 December

NOTE THAT THE QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER 1 AND 2 ARE ON MONDAY'S BLOG. I POSTED THESE QUESTIONS, WHICH ARE DUE WEDNESDAY FOR ANYONE WHO WISHES TO READ AHEAD.

Two concepts that are important to Romanticism: awe and sublime
AWE: A feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder
SUBLIME: the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual or artistic. The term especially refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation.

Here is the reading schedule.

Tuesday 6 December Chapter 1 The Prison House and Chapter 2 The Market Place

Wednesday 7 December Chapter 3 The Recognition and Chapter 4 The Interview

Thursday 8 December Chapter 5 Hester at her Needle, Chapter 6 Pearl, Chapter 7 TheGovernor’s Hall and Chapter 8 The Elf Child and the Minister

Friday 9 December Chapter 9 The Leech and Chapter 10 The Leech and his Patient

Monday 12 December Chapter 11 The Interior of the Heart, Chapter 12 The Minister’s Vigil,Chapter 13 Another View of Hester

Tuesday 13 December Chapter 14 Hester and The Physician, Chapter 15, Hester and Pearl, Chapter 16 A Forest Walk

Wednesday 14 December The Pastor and his Parishioner, Chapter 18 A Flood of Sunshine,Chapter 19 The Child at the Brook-Side

Thursday 15 December Chapter 20 The Minister in a Maze, Chapter 21 New England

Holiday,Chapter 22 The Procession

Friday 16 December The Revelation, Chapter 24 Conclusion

Homework: due Wednesday either at the beginning of class or send along before in an e-mail

1. What specifically does the "white man, clad in a strange disarray of civilized and savage costume" do to indicate to Hester that she should not acknowledge that she knows him?

2. Describe Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale using specific text.

3. How does Roger Chillingsworth calm the baby and Pearl in prison?

4. What is Chillingsworth response to Hester's not revealing the identity of her paramour?

Synopsis: Chapter 1 The Prison House and Chapter 2 The Market Place
The story takes place in the Puritan village of Boston, Massachusetts, during the first half of the 17th Century. Several years before the novel begins, Hester Prynne came to the New World to await the arrival of her husband who had business to conclude in Europe. However, Hester’s husband was captured by Indians upon his arrival in New England and did not arrive in Boston as Hester expected. While living alone in Boston and believing her husband dead, Hester committed adultery and became pregnant. The village magistrates imprisoned her for this sin and decreed she must wear a scarlet “A”on the bodice of her dress for the rest of her life. While in prison, Hester, highly skilled in needlework, elaboratelyembroidered the scarlet letter with gold thread. Before her release from prison, Hester was forced to stand on the public scaffold where all the villagers could see her. As the story opens, Hester is leaving the prison to take her position on the scaffold. She wears the scarlet letter and carrieswith dignity her three-month-old daughter Pearl.