huckleberry finn, questions - last questions

Chapter 40-43

1. We learn that Jim has a very good heart. He thinks about others before himself when he risks his freedom for Tom.

2. The Doctor's speech made people don't hate Jim as much as they actually would. To be a doctor you needed (and still need) a high degree and people looked up to them. I think what he did was right in this situation.

3. Tom makes a necklace out of the bullet to show people how brave he is, and that he survived. It can also be kept as a memory for this big adventure he has been through.

4. Huck Finn decides to run away. It shows us that the society he lives in is not for him. He wants freedom to think and act like he wants. He has very strong opinions and that even makes it more difficult for him to live in the corrupt society.

5. The book would be very different if it was told in third person. I think having Huck as the narrator is good because you get a stronger relationship to the story, like you get more dragged in to it. What can be hard with it is that Huck's way to see things are deep. It might look easy, but it is actually very deep thoughts behind it. The hard part is really to understand the deep part of this book. The dialect is not the hard thing.

huckleberry finn, questions - written assignment

Chapter 35 - 39

Mark Twain's contrast between romanticism and realism is evident stated in this novel. He uses Tom Sawyer as a symbol of romanticism, and I would also say the society. This is all compared to Huckleberry Finn who is very realistic. The book will also show us that Huck is the one who is right. His simple soul is able to watch events from the outside, but without blameing people. I think romanticism was just too much for Mark Twain.

It's clear that Huck changes when Tom Sawyer comes back. He starts to go by Tom's plans in stead of making his own. This affects Jim's freedom because Huck just wants to get him out of the plantation, while the romantic Tom wants to do all kind of unnecessary things to get him free and he only does it for his own adventure. I think what Twain tries to show us is that Huck as a realist is a better person. Romanticism is too much drama for Twain.

To make Jim a real prisoner, Tom brings up all kinds of animales that symbolizes the romanticism. He says he needs it, but Jim doesn't want to. So Tom gets mad, and makes Jim apologize to him (chapter 38). In chapter 39 Tom writes some annomus letters to the Phelps family. All this shows us how big deal Tom has to make out of things. They don't really make any sense, it's all to his own adventure.

huckleberry finn, questions - chapter 31-35

Chapter 31-35


1. Chapter 31 is the climax because Huckleberry actually takes action in his own responsibility. Until now he has just gone with the flow, but now that something very serious and important happened he has to make an important decision. He decides to go against society, which shows how good he really is. 


2. The irony in the statement "All right, then, I'll go to hell" is that it's true words in Hucks mind. He really believes he is going to hell.


3. The beginning of chapter 32 describes the plantation where Jim currently lives. It's described as very lonesome, abandoned western-like farm. It symbolizes Huck's rebirth again. He changes personas. 


4. Huck sees Providence as faith. It shows us that Huck is actually becoming more religious. Miss Watson would agree because she is religious. 


5. When Huck and Mrs. Phelps discuss the "steamboat accident" Huck says it "killed a nigger" and she replies "Well, it's lucky because sometimes people do get hurt" This irony is that she doesn't even consider slaves as human dignity. 


6. The theme thats comes to mind is romanticism vs. realism because it's typical romanticism that Tom Sawyer should appear here. 


7. Huck knows Jim, he has compassion for him and wants him to be free because he cares about him. Tom wants something to happen, he wants an adventure and he'll make a big deal out of everything. (romantic, dramatic)


8. Again, Huck is realistic. He has the ability to see things from the outside, but he doesn't blame anyone for being the way they are.. It shows us Huck's pure and honest soul. 


9. The irony is that Tom allows Huck to steal the watermelon first, but then he blames him for stealing because it's only allowed when something is needed for escaping.

10. Huck lets Tom take control because he is his role model. He is everything Huck wants to be and Huck has missed having him there, he has missed his ideas of adventures. 

huckleberry finn, questions - chapter 26-31

Chapter 26 - 31


1. In chapter 26 Huck steals money to give it to the girls (Mary Jane, Susan and Joanna). In his decision to try to help them goes against the society. If he gets caught he'll get big consequences. In chapter 31 he decides to help Jim escape from the plantation he has been sold to. To help a slave escape is one of the worst crimes you could do in the society, but Huck knows Jim, he sees him as a human with feelings. He knows he is a good person, who cares about other people. He is aware of the consequences he can get, but he is willing to take the chance. He wants justice for Jim, and is willing to do whatever to make Jim get it. It is ironic because it is against society. Especially when in his declaration "All right, then, I'll go to hell". Usually when people say that they don't mean it, but Huck actually does. He really thinks he will go to hell, he takes it very literally. 


2. a) Huck couldn't pray the lie because God would know that he didn't mean it. 
b) In stead of being one of the society, Huck was able to see what was really right. When he wrote down the letter to Miss Watson he saw what could actually happened if he didn't help Jim. He knows that helping Jim is the most right thing to do, and even though it would have consequences. If he wouldn't have helped him the consequences would be bigger (personally) 


3. Huck thinks about all the things that Jim and he has been through together and decides to tear up the letter he wrote to Miss Watson. Jim had actually told him that he was the only one he had, the only friend. Huck couldn't disappoint him now. He also knows a better difference between right and wrong that the society. 

huckleberry finn, questions december 7

Chapter 21-23


1. He describes the residents in the Arkansas town as very cruel people who wants to lynch others, and watch people suffer. This is what the quote from "The Damned Human Race" refers to, how cruel the men (humans) are, that they like to see others in pain.


2. Huck is too smart to participate in the duke and the king's scheme. He knows the truth about the (that they are freuds) and doesn't want any trouble.


3. Mark Twain criticizes the the meaning of honor, which is something that you should be proud of and protect. What happened in the incident of Sherburn and Bogg is that Sherburn kills Bogg because he is being troublesome. When he is killed everyone gather around to watch him. What kind of honor does people show here? Not a very good one....It's a lack of the Southern honor.


4. Would you rather watch Shakespeare than go to a circus? No, I ddidn't think so, unless you are very into it and smart enough to understand Shakespeare. The Duke and the King though Shakespeare would interest people, but it didn't at all!


5. The circus incident shows us that Huck is still just a child, he doesn't get the idea of the show. The trick was not played on the ringmaster, but on the audience. Huck thinks the deceived is the ringmaster.


6. The advertisement for the "Royal Nonesuch" wants to provoke people, and it should because it says that woman and children are not allowed to watch the show.. which means there must be something hidden, a secret. People also often want to watch or know secret things that they are not supposed to.


7. What Mark Twain implies is that real kings and dukes are not very different from the ones in his book. Usually (not in Norway....) royal people wants to take money from people without really doing anything, and use it for their own advantage.  


8. Lizabeth was a girl that had the scarlet fever and got deaf. Jim shows Huck that he cares about this, he feel sorry for her. He reflects on the happenings in his earlier life, how much he misses his family, daughter. The way he reacts to this is what makes good parents and the deeper humanity.


9. Huck was adopted by the Widow Douglas, who made him go to school and go to school. He has rules to follow such as being home on time, speak properly and don't smoke. Jim (which comes in the picture later) is the Widow Douglas' sister, Miss Watson's slave. Huck joins his best friend Tom Sawyer's gang, who are kids that pretend to kill people and steal. They also play a trick on Jim, the slave. 


Huck's dad, Pap, comes in the picture and he wants money from Huck. (Huck had a lot of money in the bank) To make sure Pap doesn't get it he gives the money to the judge. Pap also "kidnaps" Huck, and they live together in Illinois Shore. Pap doesn't like the fact that the Widow Douglas has tried to give him an opportunity to get an education, so he takes him out of school and he gets to do whatever he wants to go again. Pap also locks the door when he is gone so Huck won't get out. In the beginning Huck likes it, but then his dad starts hallucinate from drinking too much, he tries to kill Huck and calls him the Angel of death which feds Huck up and he decides to escape. While his dad is in town he ruins his own house before he breaks out so people think he was killed and then he  flees on a canoe to the Jackson Island. 


He stays there for some days before he meets Jim who ran away from Miss Watson because she was going to sell him "down the river" (to the south, more accurate New Orleans). Huck plays his second trick on Jim and as a result Jim gets bit by a snake, which shows us that he is superstitious. Huck and Jim go to a floating house where they find a dead man, and they take some stuff from the house. Jim does not want to talk about the man's deaths. 


Later they decide that they need to know what people think actually happened to them, so Huck dresses up as a girl so people can't see that it is him, and he goes back to the town. The lady he talks to is new and only know a little bit, but enough  for Huck to know what is going on. The lady reveals Huck, but he keeps telling stories about who he is and how he came there and he "survives". The lady also tells him that her husband and some other people are looking for Jim, and the one who finds him will get a huge amount of money ($300). She tells him that her husband saw smoke on the Jackson Island, and was heading there. Huck realizes that he does not have much time, and he hurries back to the island where Jim is. 


They leave the island floating beyond the river on their raft. They encounter a steamboat called the Walter Scott, where there is a real gang. Huck lies to them saying that he is son of a rich man, and his family is on the boat. He tries to save the murders (and himself) because he has compassion for them, he will, after all, might be a murder one day too. 


Huck plays a third trick on Jim, which involves that they get lost in the fog. When they find each other again Jim gets very relieved because he though that Huck might drowned. Their raft gets hit by a steamboat and they get lost. Huck goes to a house where the Grangerfors live. He is been taken good care of and becomes friends with the family's son, Buck. Buck tells Huck about the freud, and the other family, the Shepherdsons. Buck's sister run away with a man from the other family, and when people hear about this they "freud" starts, and eventually Buck gets killed. One of the Grangerfors' slaves show Huck where Jim is... 


Huck and Jim runs away together again, and out on the river they meet two drunks, runaways that pretend to be the Duke and the King. Huck understands that they are not real dukes and kings, but is smart enough not to tell them he knows it. They go into town where the Duke and the King are acting Shakespeare, but no one show any interest for it, so they do the "Royal Nonesuch" instead, and people come to watch it. What they do it that they lure the people and use the money for their own advantage. 


Then Bugg and Sherburn gets into a fight, and Sherburn killes Bugg. People are all crowded around him to watch what happened (Bugg). Huck doesnt really understand what's going on now, he misunderstands.

huckleberry finn, questions december 2

Chapter 15-20

1. In the fog, Jim and Huck are lost, when they get out of it, on the clear river they find each other again. We can compare the river to the induvidual because they have freedom there, and they can do whatever they want. The fog is the society because it blinds them and they don’t have any power there. They are lost. This will happened several times in the book, and we can look at it as death – rebirth.

2. Huck feels like he have to say sorry to Jim because he hurt him. Huck sees him as a human now, and knows he has feeling too.

3. a) Huck helped Jim run away, and he is a bad person from the society view now. Slaves were people’s property, and he has “stolen” a slave and helped him become free. This was the worst thing you could do besides murder.

b) Irony: that he has to steel his own children if he can’t buy them..

c) Why do the right thing when the wrong thing to do it easier, and it will all be the same in the end..

d) Jim is blaming the bad luck on the snake. They have to pass the Ohio River to go to the Mississippi river or else they will go down south, which is very bad, especially if you’re a slave.

4. The bounty hunters (slave hunters) give Huck a lot of money because of the fake story Huck told them about his father being sick. The irony is that they are not really evil persons, and they do feel sorry for him. They just don’t want to get sick too.

5. The “naturally” created raft is Huck and Jim. They are living away from the society. The “industrially” created steamboat is the society. It symbolizes Individual vs. society.

6. Mark Twain put Huckleberry Finn aside for a few years because it wasn’t what he wanted to write about. He wanted to write about Tom Sawyer. In stead he started to write a book called “Life on Mississippi”, which was about his own adventures down the Mississippi river. He met interesting people that gave him the inspiration to write on Huckleberry Finn again. The book was published 20 years after the slavery was over, because now organizations as The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) had (and still has) extremely much against black people having their rights, Christianity and people who support black people’s rights. I guess he wanted to open people’s eyes more to see how stupid it was and that discrimination to black people were still going on.

7. The satirical about it is that it is that it is romantic. The irony is the romantic idea of death, which mark Twain is making fun of. They go to church because they are “good” people, and worship God, but they also bring weapons and the first thing they do when they get out of church is to kill members of the other family (The Feud, Romeo and Juliet). It doesn’t make any sense, and Mark Twain is making fun of it.

8. Huck plays on Buck’s gullibility because has “better” values to society than Huck has. Huck is able to see how silly “The Feuds” (romantic) are, because he is not involved in it.

9. When Buck asks Huck about “Moses and the candle” he says he doesn’t know anything about it. Huck also thinks that Buck asks him a real, serious question, and this shows us how realist he is. Huck can symbolize Moses because he frees Jim from slavery. It shows us that you can do the right thing without being religious. (this is what Mark Twain tries to tell us.)

10. Hogs that sleep under the floor go to church whenever while the families only do it when they have to. The first thing the families do when the go out of church is to kill each other, which is the opposite of Christianity. This is wrong, and you shouldn’t go to church just because everyone else does it, it should mean something to you.

11. The Feud reminds me of Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet. You have the two families that don’t like each other, after one person from one of the family kills another person from the other family, this family kills another member of the family that killed one of their members. (Wow, what a good explanation.) The reason they do it is wrong, and they don’t even know why they do it. Buck says its fun, which is crazy?? It is not fun that several people in your family get killed just because you had “fun” killing someone from the other family.

12. Is symbolizes the freedom Huck and Jim have on the raft. They are free souls, and the corrupted society is not for them. Freedom/individual vs. society.

13. Huck and Jim are almost naked on the raft and it represents their free souls.

14. Huck doesn’t expose the Duke and the King (Dauphin) as frauds because he doesn’t want trouble. If it is one thing he has learnt from his father it is that you shouldn’t mess with people like that, because they wont change their opinion, and they will only make trouble for you. It also shows that he is a free soul, he let people be themselves, without having any trouble with it. He has grown he is more mature now.

15. Huck is the most shrewd because he is not being honest to what he knows about the Duke and the King.

16. Romeo and Juliet written by Shakespeare is ROMANTIC! Mark Twain Is making fun of romanticism.  Examples are the feud, Duke and the King!

17. The King pretends to be a pirate who has been saved. Now he wants to go back, but he only needs money. Mark Twain the gullibility of people.

18. Yes. The Duke and the King, that they call themselves are not good persons as their names say. I think that Mark Twain tries to reflect the society through them. Just as the society has “good values” (they go to church) the Duke and the King has names from people that are supposed to be good, but they are not. The society is corrupt!

huckleberry finn, questions november 29

Chapter 5-11

5. Freedom is the major theme, and both Huck and Jim are seeking it, only in different ways. Huck is now free from his father, and Jim from Miss Watson. They are both worth a lot of money (Huck has money in the bank and Jim is a slave so he is worth a lot of money.

6. The irony in wishing Tom was there to help plan the escape is that it would be messed up. It wouldn't be successful.

7. The irony in Huck finding bread to eat is that it actually arrives to him and he is considered as dead. (Bread was supposed to arrive to dead people.) His view at prayers also changes, because it actually happened. (he got bread, just as Miss Watson prayed for.)

8. Jim is scared that Huck will hurt him, and he begs him not to. Jim also hesitates to tell his story to Huck, because if he told anyone about it he would be dead.

9. Both Huck and Jim are free now. Everyone thinks Huck is dead, which symbolizes his rebirth. Jim as a slave just ran away, and Huck is going to help him. Although he is helping Jim, he is scared of the consequences it can bring.

10. "People would call me a lowdown Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum." Abolitionists were people who wanted to end slavery. Huck thinks its wrong because its against the society. It also shows his honesty.

11. Some young birds come along, flying a yard or two at a time and lighting. Jim said it was a sign it was going to rain. He said it was a sign when young chickens flew that way, and so he reckoned it was the same way when young birds done it. I was going to catch some of them, but Jim wouldn't let me. He said it was death. He said his father laid mighty sick once, and some of them catched a bird, and his old granny said his father would die, and he did. It shows that what Jim "believes" in is not only nonsense, it comes from his personal experience.

12. It's the second trick Huck plays on Jim, and it's the second time snake (motif) appears in the book. It's typical Huck because only wants to have fun, and he doesn't understand what he does. (He is just a kid..) To handle a snake is bad luck to Jim, and when Huck gets to know that he feel sorry and ashamed. He will never do it again and he starts to believe in superstition. Huck still sees Jim as a slave.

13. We learn that he does what he has to do to get what he wants. He wanted information about what people think happened to him, Jim and his dad, and to get it he has to dress like a girl (in this case).

14. What she does is that she exaggerate to get people more interested. This is a very common human trait.

15. Pap is worth $200 while Jim is worth $300. (the price is given to the one that can find them. They think Pap murdered Huck, and Jim is a slave that ran away.) The reason is because Jim is a slave, and at that time it was more important than murder. The satire is that murder is less important than slavery.

Chapter 12-14

1. Huck now sees borrowing and stealing as equal, although Jim and he made a "list" of what they wouldn't "borrow" anymore. The things were unnecessary anyway. They are not stealing for personal gain, but to keep them alive. The logic is that they're not going to take things they don't need anymore.

2. Huck wants to be an adventurous as Tom Sawyer.

3. The significance of the boat named The Walter Scott is that Walter Scott also is an writer who wrote romantic novels. He wrote about great adventures with fantastic escapes. Mark Twain is making fun of romantic literature. The irony is that people actually die on the boat and the escape is far from fantastic.

4. Huck tries to save the murders because he might be one himself on day. He feels sorry for them and is able to have compassion for them.

5. The satire is that Huck lure the boatman to rescue the murders. He pretends that a wealthy lady is in danger. The boatman helps him because of money, not because he really cares. This also shows us how Mark Twain criticizes the society.

6. "it was all up with HIM anyway it could be fixed". Jim is talking about being stuck on the boat. He is in a loose-loose situation because he is black and a slave. Either he will drown or someone will find him and he will be sold to the south.

7. It is not accurate at all. What Huck thinks is that they just sit around and do nothing. They have many wives and children that they don't really care about, because they are just "one in a gallery." He also thinks that the kings do exactly what they want and if someone disagrees they just cut their head of. The reason comes from lack of knowledge.

8. Comparing Huck's thoughts about kings, Jim thinks this about King Solomon. He has many wives and children. King Solomon also cut one of his children in half. To Jim this just shows him how stupid he is, why would he have so many wives and children that just were fighting and making noise? Wouldn't it be better if just had "a few" (one wife, a couple of children?) that he would really care about? It would actually matter if he loose one of them... Jim has a point!

huckleberry finn, questions november 18

Chapter 1-5

1. The Widow Douglas is a religious and has a good heart. She took Huck into her life, gave him nice, clean clothes and food. Since Moses is dead, Huck doesn't care. This shows us that Huck is a realist and lives in the present.

2. Superstitions are "not real things" if you are superstitious you believe that if you break a mirror, you see a black cat walk over the way or you walk under a ladder you will have bad luck. In Mark Twain's view, people who believe in superstitions are religious. The spider and the owl are examples from the book, and they are both connected to death.

3. Huck believed that death and afterlife would be an adventure. It was something different from life, which he would find exiting. Death is mentioned a lot in chapter 1 becuase it is a motif. It helps us to understand Huck's personality and the way he thinks of life. He is very realistic, and death is as normal as birth. 


4. The trick Tom and Huck play on Jim is not really mean, they just have fun. They are children, and its no bad thoughts behind it. 


5. "Jim was most ruined for a servant..." means that now that Jim has followers who believe in him and look up to him. Since he has people looking up to him and he gets attention (which makes him feel good) he feels too good to be a slave. That is what has ruined him as a servant (slave).


6. Tom leaves 5 cents for the candle because he is trying to be honest. He has a little education and moral. Tom didn't really need this candle, but he "took" it just to have it. Unlike, Huck would only have taken the candle if he really needed it, but he wouldn't have left the money there.


7. Tom is way more grown up and smart than Huck, he knows what is going on. Huck is more straight forward, honest, naive and "stupid". 


8. Tom thinks it's important that the gang is called "higwayman" in stead of burglars because it sounds more adventuring. 


9. Huck sees praying as unnecessary because you don't get "what you wish for". He thinks it doesn't make any sense then. Why would you do it only for the spiritual, when thats not even real? Again, this shows that he is a realist. 


10. Tom calls Huck a "numskull" because he doesn't understand what is going on. Numskull is the same as stupid.


11. This is true. It just shows how realistic Huck is. It also shows a difference between Huck and Tom.


12. Huck wants to give all his money to Judge Thatcher so that his dad won't get any of it. His dad will only use it on alcohol anyway.


Chapter 5-11


1. The irony is that his dad doesn't like that Huck goes to school, learn religion and get an education. 


2. The society don't want to seperate Huck and his father, even though Huck would have a better life. This because of the traditional family, where parents and their children live together. 


3. Even though Huck is beaten up by his father he prefers to stay at his house. There he doesn't have to go to school, dress up, learn religion and be trapped in a society where he has to follow rules. With his father he has freedom, and can do pretty much whatever he wants, because his father doesn't care. 


4. ("Pap" - Hucks dad) Pap's thoughts are the opposite of Mark Twain's thoughts. Pap is extremely racist ! He won't vote anymore because he heard that somewhere in Ohio the black people had rights to vote.

evanescent, veneration

Evanescent, adjective
The theory about the earth being flat evanescent long ago.

Veneration, noun
The veneration of the king and queen in Norway is big.

magnate, malleable

Magnate - noun
Jens Stoltenberg is an magnate politician form Norway.

Malleable - adjective
Chewing gum is malleable.

the scarlet letter, symbol 35

Chapter 19

After Hester tore the scarlet letter of her bosom...she says "Come, dearest child!" to Pearl. Pearl won't listen to her because she is not the same anymore. The only one she has been close to her whole life is her mother, known with the A on her bosom. It's obvious that she won't go to her when she is not the same. The one and only thing she knew is not the same anymore because she is not wearing the scarlet letter. The scarlet letter was Hester characteristics.

the scarlet letter, symbol 34

Chapter 16


“Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom.......when I'm a woman grown?" Pearl does still not know what the A on her mother's bosom means. Because of the way she says it, I think Pearl knows it's something "bad", since they have never been as everyone else, she has always been an outsider, they don't have contact with other people(as friends. Hester only "works" for others). It seems like she also thinks that she is going to have the letter A on her bosom when she grows older, I think this is because she is grown up with her mother, and no one else, so it is what she is used to. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 33

Chapter 14

 “It is not granted me to pardon. I have no such power as thou tellest me of. My old faith, long forgotten, comes back to me, and explains all that we do, and all we suffer. By thy first step awry, thou didst plant the germ of evil; but, since that moment, it has all been a dark necessity. Ye that have wronged me are not sinful, save in a kind of typical illusion; neither am I fiend-like, who have snatched a fiend’s office from his hands. It is our fate. Let the black flower blossom as it may! Now go thy ways, and deal as thou wilt with yonder man.” 

I think what Roger Chillingworth means here is that when Hester comitted the adultery she already planted the evil (which is Pearl). He refers to her as the dark all the time, even though he is the evil one here actually. He keeps saying this was their fate, like it should convince Hester that he is not the bad one, it was just fate, what has happened is exactly what should have happened. In the end of this qote it's like he is giving up, he has done what he wants to do with Mr. Dimmesdale, and now they can do whatever they want. I don't think thats true, I think he will make sure Mr. Dimmesdale wil die. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 32

Chapter 14

"I have surely acted a false part by the only man to whom the power was left me to be true!” Hester is aware of what she has done. She knows that not telling Mr. Dimmesdale about the secret between Roger Chillingworth and her has been killing him. She knows what Roger Chillingworth has done to him, to give him medicines just to torture him. She realizes that she was trapped, and by concluding this promise with Roger Chillingworth killed the man who she loves and cares most about slowly.  Since Mr. Dimmesdale was the only man who knew about who she slept with in the beginning (since it was him), he is the only one she can be 100% honest to. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 31

Chapter 14


Roger Chillingworth tells Hester that the council had debating about her and the scarlet letter. "It was debated whether or no, with safety to the common weal, yonder scarlet letter might be taken off your bosom." I think certain people now wanted to take the scarlet letter of her chest because it has a different meaning. They thought that the letter which was supposed to be filled with sin and sorrow, and now has a positive meaning wasn't right. That people started to talk nicely about her was wrong! The scarlet letter has became her in a way. It has made her the person she is. If it removes she won't be the same person. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 30

Chapter 13


"The world’s law was no law for her mind." This tells us that Hester had her own way to think of. She didn't agree with the Worlds laws, as for her part would be the Puritan laws. It's like the laws wasn't made for her, and this society she lives in wasn't made for her. She was made to be different. The Puritan society didn't allow this, and that's why she is an outsider.

the scarlet letter, symbol 29

Chapter 13


"She came, not as a guest, but as a rightful inmate, into the household that was darkened by trouble; as if its gloomy twilight were a medium in which she was entitled to hold intercourse with her fellow-creatures." She has found a way to make people look at her in a different way. Sick people tend to appreciate more in life, because they see how precious it actually is. I also think sick people easier forgive, and in this example allow Hester to show how good she actually is. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 28

Chapter 13


"They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength." People doesn't look at Hester's A as "adultery" anymore, but in stead they look at it as "Able". She made the A on her bosom to have an other meaning, by doing good things. People started to look at her as a person who made things possible. Able can also mean Angel. An Angel is often compared to Christianity (or other religions). The Puritan people were Christian.  Persons called angels were lovable, pure and good people. Just like they looked at Hester now. 

esoteric, vitiate

Esoteric, adjective
The scarlet letter is an esoteric book.

Vitiate, verb
Peter vitiated my hairdryer.

the scarlet letter, symbol 27

Chapter 10

Mr. Dimmesdale sits by the window in their house looking out on the graveyard. He asks Roger Chillingworth where he got his planted herbs with such a dark, flabby leaf from. Chillingworth's answer sounds like this “They are new to me. I found them growing on a grave, which bore no tombstone, nor other memorial of the dead man, save these ugly weeds that have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance. They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime.” I think that what he tries to do here is to make Mr. Dimmesdale feel even worse than he does, by saying "which he had done better to confess during his lifetime".  It's obvious that he hints to the secret Mr. Dimmesdale is hiding, and he knows that he won't confess, and that this makes him sick, he feels so bad about it. It's still all about torturing him, but not only by his health, but mental too. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 26

Chapter 10

"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 that darted from Bunyan’s awful door-way in the hill-side, and quivered on the pilgrim’s face. The soil where this dark miner was working had perchance shown indications that encouraged him." People could now see that Roger Chillingworth was not to be trusted. They describe his eyes as burning flames, or more interesting, the light that shined on a Pilgrim's face from Bunyan's awful door-way in the hill-side. The hillside doorway is the gates to Hell, which gives me a picture of Chillingworth as a terrible man, with black scary eyes. Just as he was mentioned as Satan, the door-way in the hill-side is his way. It's the way he wants Mr. Dimmesdale to go. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 25

Chapter 10

"He now dug into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man’s bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption."  


Here I compare gold and jewel to Mr. Dimmesdale heart, because gold and jewels are outstanding beautiful things just like the heat. The grave to his body and his psyche. In norwegian we have this expression that if someone asks to much about someone's personal life, they dig(?). We often say "stop digging(?)". Chillingworth doesn't ask, but he is there all the time observing all Mr. Dimmesdale's actions. Roger Chillingworth will most likely not find anything because Mr. Dimmesdale's heart is already filled with sorrow and dark hidden secrets, and his soul is already dead.

the scarlet letter, symbol 24

Chapter 9 


"Then, after long search into the minister’s dim interior, and turning over many precious materials, in the shape of high aspirations for the welfare of his race, warm love of souls, pure sentiments, natural piety, strengthened by thought and study, and illuminated by revelation,—all of which invaluable gold was perhaps no better than rubbish to the seeker,—he would turn back, discouraged, and begin his quest towards another point." This is right before Roger Chillingworth looks at Mr. Dimmesdale A painted on his chest when he's asleep. I think Roger Chillingworth was a very smart person, who could read people. He didn't have else to do in New England because no one knew him. He didn't have to care about anyone, all he ever did was to seek for the other sinner, Pearl's dad. Since he is a person who easily read others, he must have seen the hidden relationship between Hester and Mr. Dimmesdale. He must also have seen that Mr. Dimmesdale very often holds his hand over his heart, like he hides something. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 23

Chapter 9


"To sum up the matter, it grew to be a widely diffused opinion, that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, like many other personages of especial sanctity, in all ages of the Christian world, was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan’s emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth." People did never really like Roger Chillingworth because he was very strange, but they believed that he was a good doctor so they accepted him. Now that Mr. Dimmesdale moved in with him to be healed, but he doesn't, people start to look at Roger Chillingworth as Satan. Satan is the chief of evilness. I think people sees him as Satan himself or Satan's messenger because Mr. Dimmesdale only gets worse after moving in with Roger Chillingworth.

the scarlet letter, symbol 22

Chapter 9


People wants Mr. Dimmesdale to move in with Roger Chillingworth because he is really sick, and Chillingworth is the "doctor". Mr. Dimmesdale says “I need no medicine." because if God wants him to die, he should die. I think that the reason Roger Chillingworth wants to move in with him is because he suspects that he is Pearl's father, and he easily can torture him with keeping him alive. 

opaque, propensity

Opaque

Camilla's clothes are opaque.

Propensity

Julia has a propensity towards animals. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 21

Chapter 9

Roger Chillingworth is mentioned as the leech. Before a docter was called a leech, but it is also a worm with suckers on both ends. I think the society looks at him as the "doctor-leech", because ever since he came he has been acting as a nice but strange man just trying to help, and he presents himself as a doctor(and wants to be looked at as a doctor). What he really is, is the worm trying to suck all information he can get to find out who Pearl's father really is.

the scarlet letter, symbol 20

Chapter 8


".... the young minister at once came forward, pale, and holding his hand over his heart, ...." Here Mr. Dimmesdale talks up for Hester, so she can keep her child. Mr. Dimmesdale holds his hand over his heart because he is afraid the people around (Mr. Wilson, Governor Bellingham and Roger Chillingworth) him are going to read his heart. 


"....This child of its father’s guilt and its mother’s shame hath come from the hand of God, to work in many ways upon her heart, who pleads so earnestly, and with such bitterness of spirit, the right to keep her....."  I think that what he says to support Hester is a way to communicate to Hester too. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 19

Chapter 8

Pearl is about to be taken away from her mother, but Hester refuses. Governor Bellingham means that Pearl would have it better if she lived with someone else. Mr. Wilson asks Pearl where she comes from to see if she had the kind of Christian upbringing appropriate for her age. Even though Pearl's mother has thought her that she comes from the heavenly father she says something else. She says she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door. Now it's clear that Pearl is a symbol. Pearl is a wild natural (nature) girl who can't be tamed, just like the rose bush! It fits her perfect to say she was picked from the rose-bush!

vocabulary words

Opaque (Ugjennomsiktig) - adjective - not able to be seen through


Propensity (Tilbøyelighet) - noun -natural tendency to behave in a particular way


Esoteric (Hemmelig) - adjective - to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest

Vitiated (?) - verb - spoil or impair the quality or efficiency of


Magnate (?)  - noun - a wealthy and influential person, esp. in business


Malleable (formbar, smibar) - adjective - something that is able to be hammered or pressed permanently out of shape without breaking or cracking.


Dearth (Mangel på noe) - noun - a scarcity or lack of something 


Florid (rødmusset) - adjective - having a bright red color


Evanescent (forsvinne, flyktig?)- adjective - quickly fading or disappearing


Veneration (ærefrykt?) - verb - regard with great respect

the scarlet letter, symbol 18

Chapter 7

“No, my little Pearl!” said her mother. “Thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have none to give thee!” Hester is already seen as a dead person to the society, she has nothing she should have said. She has no joy anymore, and can't give Pearl any. I aslo think Hester wants her child to be herself, and not just like everyone else. See "Thou must gather thine own sunshine." - you must find yourself, and your solutions. And "I have none to give thee" - she can't be her, and she doesn't want to be her. She doesn't want Pearl to be like her.

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Chapter 7


"She screamed and shouted so loud that the children’s hearts must have quaked with fear. Victorious, Pearl returned quietly to her mother and looked up, smiling, into her face.......She screamed and shouted so loud that the children’s hearts must have quaked with fear. Victorious, Pearl returned quietly to her mother and looked up, smiling, into her face." When children grows up in a society where they don't get to develop among other children, they don't learn how to behave to other people, and react properly. Pearl understands that she and her mother is not like the others, She sees that Hester is treated differently. Since Pearl loves her mother, and she is the only one she knows (and she has grown up without any relationship to other kids) she reacts to protect her mother in this situation.

the scarlet letter, symbol 16

Chapter 7


"It was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life!" Hester dresses her child in scarlet, where she becomes a living symbol of the scarlet letter, A.  "Her mother, in contriving the child’s garb, had allowed the gorgeous tendencies of her imagination their full play; arraying her in a crimson velvet tunic, of a peculiar cut, abundantly embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread." I think Hester dresses her child in these colors to transmit some of her "pain" over to something she loved so it would be easier for her to carry it. When she sees her child in the scarlet colors she sees herself, but not as a bad person. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 15

Chapter 7


Pearl was a very energetic child, filled with spirit! She is filled with joy and happiness. She doesn't seems to have any concerns in life. "So much strength of coloring, which must have given a wan and pallid aspect to cheeks of a fainter bloom, was admirably adapted to Pearl’s beauty, and made her the very brightest little jet of flame that ever danced upon the earth."
To dance and show happiness in a Puritan society is very bad. Already from a young age Pearl stands out, she is a rebel. Pearl is an outcast(?) from her mother, but in a different way. While Hester is filed with shame, Pearl seems to have no concerns in her life. I believe the society don't like it, because its wrong that a child of a mother who committed adultery should be happy. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 14

Chapter 6


When Pearl grew older Hester notice that Pearl is a special child.  She is not like everyone else “Thou art not my child! Thou art no Pearl of mine!.....Your heavenly Father sent you!” I also think that Hester doesn't want Pearl to know what really happened, why she doesn't have a father.  So she tries to tell her the same story every parents does when their kids are young, that someone sent her. It's obviously that she doesn't want her child to know why she doesn't have a father, why her life is not like other children's lives. Pearl is the symbol of Hester's sin, and she doesn't want Pearl to know that, she doesn't want her child to suffer.

the scarlet letter, symbol 13

Chapter 6

"But she named the infant “Pearl,” as being of great price,—purchased with all she had,—her mother’s only treasure!" Hester named her child Pearl because she was the only thing she had. A pearl is something precious, and valuable.  A pearl makes you feel good, and makes you feel that you have some status. If Hester lost Pearl she would have no reason to live, Pearl is the one that keeps her alive!  

the scarlet letter, symbol 12

Chapter 5

Hester also made clothes for wealthy people who were able to pay for it. She made everything except wedding dresses. She wasn't allowed to make it because it because a wedding dress is something you use when you are getting married, and she did something that is forbidden in marriage. In fact adultery. Even though she was a very talented dress maker, people wouldn't wear a wedding dress because of the sinn she had done. I think the reason might be that they think that some of her "bad soul" would transfer over to the dress and make their marriage bad.

the scarlet letter, symbol 11

Chapter 5

When Hester moved she started to make clothes for poor people without getting paid. I think the reason she did this was because it was a way she could punish herself, it made her feel better and she got something else to think about. Maybe she though that since she did something nice, people could like her again and she could have some "friends".  I also think that this is something she liked to do, and was good at, she wanted to show people that she was good in something, and not only a bad person.

the scarlet letter, symbol 10

Chapter 5

When Hester Prynne got out of a prison she had to move to a deserted place. I think this is a punishment too, not only did she have to wear the scarlet letter, but she also had to move far away from people. To be excluded from a society makes you feel less worth. You feel like no one wants something to do with you, and this is exactly what happened. People didn't want anything to do with Hester Prynne after the sinn she did.

the scarlet letter, symbol 9

Chapter 4

In the end of chapter 4 Roger Chillingworth says this to Hester Prynne “Thou hast kept the secret of thy paramour. Keep, likewise, mine!" He doesn't want anyone to know him, because he is going to do something harmful to this family (Hester, her child and Mr. Dimmesdale). If Hester fails in this and tells someone about him, her hidden lover's life will be in his hands. I don't think Hester realizes in this moment that he has a plan, that he is evil, and doesn't want her anything good. It's clear that he has a plan, and even though she wont tell anyone he is going to harm her hidden lover. 

acquiesce, abstinence

Acquiesce (verb)
Freddy acquiesce the curfews she has.

Abstinence (noun)
Candy tastes like abstinence.

the scarlet letter, symbol 8

Chapter 4

When Roger Chillingworth entered the room and started to talk to Hester about all the medications he knows about. He observed it as "My old studies in alchemy,..." Alchemy is evil magic, so we know he doesn't want her or her baby anything good, but he doesn't wanna kill them either because he wants her to suffer the pain by wearing the scarlet letter.

the scarlet letter, symbol 7

Chapter 4

Roger Chillingworth 

Hester Prynne's husband comes in to the prison acting as he is a doctor under the name Roger Chillingworth. It is obvious that this is not his real name, and that he picked it for a reason. Roger Chillingworth means honorably spears. I think he chose this name because of its meaning. He wants people to think of he is a good man, so no one will accuse him as something else. He is also a powerful person who knows what he is doing. In the chapter he is also mentioned as the black man which relates to the devil who is directly evil. I think we will come back to the name in the end of the book, like it has an important meaning.

admonish, abstract

Admonish (verb)
The mother admonished Peter not to hit his sister.


Abstract (adjective or noun)
Sarah had an abstract thought about people becoming angels after death.

the scarlet letter, symbol 6

Chapter 3

"When he found the eyes of Hester Prynne fastened on his own, and saw that she appeared to recognize him, he slowly and calmly raised his finger, made a gesture with it in the air, and laid it on his lips." Usually when people put a finger on their lips they want the other to keep silent. In this case, the man wants Hester to pretend that they don't know each other. To me it seems like the man with the Indian clothes had planned everything, he knows what's going on. Hester seemed very surprised when she saw him, and her reaction is described as this in the text: "..she pressed her infant to her bosom, with so convulsive a force that the poor babe uttered another cry of pain. But the mother did not seem to hear it" She must been really shocked, and it sounds like she is afraid of the man, because she pressed her baby so hard to her breast. I think she pressed the baby so hard to her breast (where the scarlet letter is) because she tried to hide her secret more. 

aesthetic, aggrandizement

Aesthetic (adjective or noun)

The aesthetic of an old lady lies in her past life.

Aggrandizement (verb)

Germany's aggrandizement increased when Hitler took over. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 5

Chapter 3


Among all the people watching Hester Prynne standing on the scaffold, a short man with a strange body-shape was noticed by her. His motion is describes as "A writhing horror twisted itself across his features, like a snake gliding swiftly over them, and making one little pause, with all its wreathed intervolutions in open sight."
The snake is a symbol which represents the devil and evilness. It refers to the story of Adam and Eve in the bible. The snake made Eve eat from the apple tree even though she was not allowed. This makes the snake an evil, fake and convincing creature which should not be trust. So what Hawthrone means by this is that this man is evil and should not be trust. It is something mysterious over him, that is not good.

affinity, aberration

Affinity (noen)

Alida has an affinity for people who suffer.

Aberration (noun)

He is aberration because he knows all the numbers in the telephone directory.