II. The Marketplace Practice Quiz — The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: II. The Marketplace
Where does the crowd gather at the opening of Chapter 2?
Outside the prison door in Prison Lane, on a summer morning in seventeenth-century Boston.
What punishment does Hester Prynne receive in this chapter?
She must stand on the scaffold in the marketplace for several hours, publicly displaying the scarlet letter A on her gown.
How does Hester react when the beadle tries to lead her from the prison?
She repels him by an action marked with natural dignity and steps into the open air as if by her own free will.
What does Hester carry as she emerges from the prison?
She carries her infant daughter, approximately three months old, who has known only the gray twilight of a dungeon.
What appears on the breast of Hester's gown?
The letter A, elaborately embroidered in fine red cloth and gold thread, so artistic it appears as a fitting decoration rather than a punishment.
Where is Hester led after leaving the prison?
Through the streets to the scaffold at the western extremity of the marketplace, near Boston's earliest church.
What does Hester do at the very end of the chapter?
She clutches her child fiercely, looks down at the scarlet letter, and touches it to confirm that both the infant and the shame are real.
How is Hester Prynne physically described in Chapter 2?
She is tall with a figure of perfect elegance, dark abundant glossy hair, a beautiful face with a marked brow and deep black eyes, and a lady-like bearing.
Which Puritan woman shows compassion toward Hester?
A young wife holding a child by the hand, who says the pang of the mark will always be in Hester's heart.
What does one woman in the crowd demand as Hester's punishment?
The ugliest and most pitiless woman demands that Hester should die, citing both Scripture and statute-book as justification.
Who is Reverend Dimmesdale in the context of this chapter?
He is mentioned only as Hester's godly pastor who takes the scandal grievously to heart. His deeper connection to her sin is not yet revealed.
What deformed figure appears in Hester's memories on the scaffold?
A pale, thin, scholar-like man with bleared eyes and a left shoulder slightly higher than the right, foreshadowing Roger Chillingworth.
How does Chapter 2 illustrate the relationship between religion and law in Puritan Boston?
Hawthorne states that religion and law were almost identical, so both mild and severe acts of public discipline were treated with equal solemnity and gravity.
How does Hester's embroidery of the scarlet letter challenge the Puritan community?
By making it beautiful and ornate, she transforms a badge of shame into artistic self-expression, exceeding the colony's sumptuary regulations and defying the magistrates' intent.
What does the crowd's reaction to Hester reveal about Puritan society?
It reveals a community that thrives on moral judgment, where neighbors eagerly participate in public shaming and most show no mercy toward transgressors.
How does Chapter 2 explore the tension between public identity and private self?
Hester's outer composure contrasts with her inner turmoil, and her mind escapes into private memories while her body remains on public display, showing the gap between imposed shame and inner experience.
What is ironic about the Madonna and Child allusion in Chapter 2?
Hawthorne compares Hester holding her infant to the image of Divine Maternity, but notes the resemblance exists only by contrast—sacred motherhood versus what the Puritans consider sinful motherhood.
What literary technique does Hawthorne use when Hester's mind retreats to past scenes on the scaffold?
He uses flashback, describing it as memory's picture-gallery, to reveal Hester's backstory including her English childhood and her connection to a deformed scholar.
How does Hawthorne use the town-beadle symbolically?
The beadle prefigures and represents the whole dismal severity of the Puritanic code of law, serving as a physical embodiment of the system that punishes Hester.
What does the contrast between sunshine and the prison represent in this chapter?
The beadle emerges like a black shadow into sunshine, and the infant winces at daylight after knowing only dungeon twilight, establishing a light-versus-darkness motif tied to exposure and concealment.
What does the word "ignominy" mean as used in Chapter 2?
Public disgrace or dishonor. Hawthorne uses it to describe the scaffold as embodying the very ideal of ignominy.
What are "sumptuary regulations" as mentioned in the chapter?
Laws that restrict excessive personal expenditure, particularly in dress. Hester's ornate gown exceeds what these colonial laws allowed.
What does "contumely" mean in the context of Hester's ordeal?
Insulting language or treatment showing contempt. Hester had prepared herself for stings and venomous stabs of public contumely.
Who says "let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart"?
The young wife holding a child by the hand—the only compassionate voice among the Puritan women outside the prison.
What is the significance of the closing line: "Yes!—these were her realities,—all else had vanished!"?
It marks Hester's return from memory to the present, confirming that the scarlet letter and her child are her inescapable reality, and her former life is gone.