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Character Development Chart Locate quotations or descriptions in The Scarlet Letter for the following characters, which reveal aspects of their personality and how they feel about the central ideas and the events of the story.

How Character Development Reveals or Character Character Description Character Development Connects to a Central Idea Ch 1-5 Ch 1-5 Ch 1-5 ● “Malefactress” ● Isolates herself ● This connects to a central idea by showing ● “Female criminal” ● Covers her beauty with a hat that Hester stands out. She is different in ● “Young woman, ● Distanced from everyone, raises a good way. natural dignity and her child alone ● Most people in this society conform to force of character” ● Honest and truthful others, but Hester is herself. She is trying ● Actions appear to be Ch 6-10 not to completely change. of her own free will ● Hester is really worried about Ch 6-10 Hester ● Beautiful young Pearl and trying to be a good ● Hester’s dedication to raising Pearl shows Prynne woman mother. She is clearly a good that she feels the burden of her sin ● A on chest for her sin person. enough to support Pearl almost as ● Strong, kind, proud, ● She also cares about retribution. humble, and honest Dimmesdale.

Ch 6-10 ● “Day after day she looked fearfully into

the child’s expanding

nature, ever dreading

Grade 11: Scarlet Letter

to detect some dark

and wild peculiarity…” Ch 11-15 Ch 11-15 Ch 11-15 ● Hester is deeply depressed as she ● Hester’s caring attitude contrasts with ● “Manly”/ sees the effects of her secret- Dimmesdale’s selfishness and dispassionate keeping on Dimmesdale. Chillingworth’s evil nature to reveal the ● Courageous ● She cares only about central idea of hypocrisy as she is the one ● Loving Dimmesdale and is willing to not accepted by society. ● Sacrificial sacrifice her own comfort for

him. Ch 16-23 Ch 16-23 Ch 16-23 Hester is finally leaving the judgmental ● Reassured ● Hester has learned to accept the Puritan community. She is breaking away ● Brave scarlet letter’s weight. from the religious ideas that judged her and ● Content ● She wants to run away with marked her. She eventually comes to terms Dimmesdale. with her sin after Dimmesdale confesses ● She is aggravated at his inability which shows that secret sin can destroy to accept his sin as being while confession is beneficial. forgiven.

● She lives a happy life with Pearl before moving home to help other young women.

Grade 11: Scarlet Letter

Ch 1-5 Ch 1-5 Ch 1-5 ● Non-existent ● Back home unexpectedly ● Chillingworth is evil and devilish. He comes ● Chill (cold) ● Angry at Hester for cheating and goes when he pleases, and the entire ● Secretive ● Makes Hester promise not to tell Puritan society seems to approve of him ● Cunning who he is. despite his evil nature. This connects to Ch 6-10 Ch 6-10 the central idea of hypocrisy. ● “Appears” good. ● Chillingworth develops a more Ch 6-10 ● “Helps” Dimmesdale. specific role in chapter 10 as he ● The central idea the author is making ● Most everyone thinks symbolizes the devil and a leech. about the flaws of the deals he is fine. ● He completely harms with Chillingworth. He shows how the Ch 11-15 Dimmesdale and sucks the life devil is present in the society. Always Chillingworth ● Evil out of him. there. ● Vengeful Ch 11-15 Ch 11-15 ● Scheming ● Chillingworth is increasingly ● Hester’s caring attitude contrasts with ● Deceitful obsessed with getting revenge on Dimmesdale’s selfishness and Dimmesdale. He continues to look Chillingworth’s evil nature to reveal the

more and more dark-faced and central idea of hypocrisy as she is the one evil as the need for vengeance not accepted by society. Ch 16-23 consumes him.

● Vengeful Ch 16-23 Ch 16-23 ● ● Cunning ● Dimmesdale begins rejecting him Chillingworth’s death after his vengeance ● Evil which seems to make him more his taken from him shows again the ● Corrupt determined for revenge. weight of a secret sin on a person.

Grade 11: Scarlet Letter

Ch 1-5 Ch 1-5 Ch 1-5 ● Revered pastor ● He has no real connection to ● He is the ideal man of Puritan society, but ● Sad man other characters. he seems sad. Shows how the society is ● “Dim” ● Everyone in the town looks up to bad. ● Depressed him, but he seems lonely and sad. Ch 6-10 Ch 6-10 Ch 6-10 ● Dimmesdale’s developing illness is the ● “Paleness of his ● He grows weaker and sicker author’s way of showing that Dimmesdale cheek” throughout the chapters. is collapsing under the stress of what he ● “emaciated” ● He’s clearly hiding something has done. His secret weighs too heavily on ● “Too earnest devotion” from Chillingworth. him. ● Very ill man Ch 11-15 Ch 11-15 Dimmesdale Ch 11-15 ● Dimmesdale is continuing to get ● Hester’s caring attitude contrasts with ● Weak more and more sick. He also Dimmesdale’s selfishness and ● Cowardly refuses to really acknowledge Chillingworth’s evil nature to reveal the ● Unintelligent/ “Dim” Hester in public, but also refuses central idea of hypocrisy as she is the one to forgive her at first in private. not accepted by society.

Ch 16-23 Ch 16-23 ● Children avoid Dimmesdale as if Ch 16-23 ● Delusional they know his secret. Dimmesdale’s situation is ironic as he is a ● Paranoid Dimmesdale really start to Puritan minister that had an affair. He is the ● Miserable question if he sold his soul to the biggest symbol of hypocrisy in the . His ● Self-pitying Black Man. eventual death connects to the idea that ● Torn ● Freaked out by his encounter by secret sin is destructive. ● Hypocritical

Grade 11: Scarlet Letter

● At peace Mistress Hibbins, he also learns

to accept his feelings towards Pearl and Hester. ● Finally denying them no longer and confessing his sin on the scaffold.

Ch 1-5 Ch 1-5 Ch 1-5 ● Baby ● Pearl asks a lot of questions ● Pearl is punished for her mother’s crime ● Innocent which reveal information about as an INFANT. This shows how messed ● Unaware her mother. up/hypocritical the Puritan society was. Ch 6-10 Ch 6-10 Ch 6-10 ● Age 3, then 7 ● People consider Pearl to be an ● Pearl is Hester’s love and reason for being. Pearl ● “Bright complexion” “imp,” but she seems very Pearl often reaches for the scarlet letter ● “Luxuriant beauty” intuitive. A Hester wears which emphasizes the Ch 11-15 Ch 11-15 central idea of secret sin and its effects. ● Intelligent ● Pearl insightfully connects her Ch 11-15 ● Kind mother’s scarlet letter to ● Pearl, the product of adultery, is the Dimmesdale’s illness. smartest, most intuitive character. This

connects to the idea of hypocrisy.

Grade 11: Scarlet Letter

Ch 16-23 Ch 16-23 Ch 16-23 ● Observant ● She throws a fit over the fact ● Pearl is described as still having hope for ● Sassy that Hester is no longer wearing the future, and this is proven true as she ● Smart the scarlet A. is the character with the happiest ending. ● Drawn to nature ● She doesn’t like Dimmesdale and ● After receiving Chillingworth's fortune, ● Truthful connects him to her mom/ her she lives an almost happy life. This shows ● Doesn’t like letter. that the price of sin (which Pearl Dimmesdale ● She is being brought along with represents) is not necessarily trapped into ● Innocent Hester and Dimmesdale when death. they run away to Europe.

Grade 11: Scarlet Letter