Question

I will award medals!! I always do to the most helpful! I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY NEED HELP! I will tell you all the answers I think are right for each question but I need people who don't mind exerpts from old stories. If you can help, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me! I won't post the questions until someone says they can help, and if you say you're going to help, then please do!

Answer 1

The exerpts are from Scarlet Letter and they are only a few paragraphs. There are 2 exerpts that the assignment deals with so it isn't like you will be reading 10 different exerpts

Answer 2

@washcaps @Emmalineh123 @rayansh @timo86m @yesy7 @UsArmy3947 @iappreciateyourhelp @PleaseDiscoverMe @ash2326 @skullpatrol @djcool31 @forevershorty @Gatorgirl @HeatDude

Answer 3

Do you guys think you could help?

Answer 4

I already know the answers I think are right but I need a second opinion

Answer 5

i can help!!

Answer 6

Okay thank you!!!!!!

Answer 7

THE MINISTER'S VIGIL, excerpt

Walking in the shadow of a dream, as it were, and perhaps actually under the influence of a species of somnambulism1, Mr. Dimmesdale reached the spot where, now so long since, Hester Prynne had lived through her first hours of public ignominy2. The same platform or scaffold, black and weather-stained with the storm or sunshine of seven long years, and foot-worn, too, with the tread of many culprits who had since ascended it, remained standing beneath the balcony of the meeting-house. The minister went up the steps.

It was an obscure night in early May. An unvaried pall of cloud muffled the whole expanse of sky from zenith to horizon. If the same multitude which had stood as eye-witnesses while Hester Prynne sustained her punishment could now have been summoned forth, they would have discerned no face above the platform nor hardly the outline of a human shape, in the dark grey of the midnight. But the town was all asleep. There was no peril of discovery. The minister might stand there, if it so pleased him, until morning should redden in the east, without other risk than that the dank and chill night air would creep into his frame, and stiffen his joints with rheumatism, and clog his throat with catarrh and cough; thereby defrauding the expectant audience of to-morrow's prayer and sermon. No eye could see him, save that ever-wakeful one which had seen him in his closet, wielding the bloody scourge. Why, then, had he come hither? Was it but the mockery of penitence? A mockery, indeed, but in which his soul trifled with itself! A mockery at which angels blushed and wept, while fiends rejoiced with jeering laughter! 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 which invariably drew him back, with her tremulous gripe, just when the other impulse had hurried him to the verge of a disclosure. Poor, miserable man! what right had infirmity like his to burden itself with crime? Crime is for the iron-nerved, who have their choice either to endure it, or, if it press too hard, to exert their fierce and savage strength for a good purpose, and fling it off at once! This feeble and most sensitive of spirits could do neither, yet continually did one thing or another, which intertwined, in the same inextricable knot, the agony of heaven-defying guilt and vain repentance.

And thus, while standing on the scaffold, in this vain show of expiation3, Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his heart. On that spot, in very truth, there was, and there had long been, the gnawing and poisonous tooth of bodily pain. Without any effort of his will, or power to restrain himself, he shrieked aloud: an outcry that went pealing through the night, and was beaten back from one house to another, and reverberated from the hills in the background; as if a company of devils, detecting so much misery and terror in it, had made a plaything of the sound, and were bandying it to and fro.

"It is done!" muttered the minister, covering his face with his hands. "The whole town will awake and hurry forth, and find me here!"

But it was not so. The shriek had perhaps sounded with a far greater power, to his own startled ears, than it actually possessed. The town did not awake; or, if it did, the drowsy slumberers mistook the cry either for something frightful in a dream, …The clergyman, therefore, hearing no symptoms of disturbance, uncovered his eyes and looked about him. At one of the chamber-windows of Governor Bellingham's mansion, which stood at some distance, on the line of another street, he beheld the appearance of the old magistrate himself with a lamp in his hand a white night-cap on his head, and a long white gown enveloping his figure. He looked like a ghost evoked unseasonably from the grave. The cry had evidently startled him, …nevertheless, he could see but little further than he might into a mill-stone—and retired from the window.
1A state of sleep in which acts such as walking are performed
2Deep humiliation and disgrace
3The act of expressing humble regretful sorrow for offenses
4The act of making atonement or amends

Part A: Read this sentence from the excerpt:

Without any effort of his will, or power to restrain himself, he shrieked aloud: an outcry that went pealing through the night, and was beaten back from one house to another, and reverberated from the hills in the background; as if a company of devils, detecting so much misery and terror in it, had made a plaything of the sound, and were bandying it to and fro.

Which of the following correctly describes the tone developed in this text?

Please fill in blank 1 using A, B, C, or D.

A. Anger
B. Panic
C. Playfulness
D. Worry

Part B:
Select two pairs of words from the text that most clearly suggest the tone identified in the answer to Part A and enter your selections in blanks 2 and 3 provided, making sure your answers are in alphabetical order.

E. Will, restrain
F. Shrieked, devils
G. Beaten, reverberated
H. Company, detecting
I. Misery, terror
J. Plaything, bandying

part 1: I have A
Prt 2: I have F and I

Answer 8

Right.

Answer 9

what do you mean by right???

Answer 10

Chapter II: The Marketplace

In fact, this scaffold constituted a portion of a penal machine, which now, for two or three generations past, has been merely historical and [traditional] among us, but was held, in the old time, to be as effectual an agent, in the promotion of good citizenship, as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists of France. It was, in short, the platform of the pillory; and above it rose the framework of that instrument of discipline, so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it up to the public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy1 was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron. There can be no outrage, methinks, against our common nature—whatever be the delinquencies of the individual—no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame; as it was the essence of this punishment to do. In Hester Prynne's instance, however, as not infrequently in other cases, her sentence bore that she should stand a certain time upon the platform, but without undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head, the proneness to which was the most devilish characteristic of this ugly engine. Knowing well her part, she ascended a flight of wooden steps, and was thus displayed to the surrounding multitude, at about the height of a man's shoulders above the street…

The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering at it. The witnesses of Hester Prynne's disgrace had not yet passed beyond their simplicity… Even had there been a disposition to turn the matter into ridicule, it must have been repressed and overpowered by the solemn presence of men no less dignified than the governor, and several of his counsellors, a judge, a general, and the ministers of the town, all of whom sat or stood in a balcony of the meeting-house, looking down upon the platform. When such personages could constitute a part of the spectacle, without risking the majesty, or reverence of rank and office, it was safely to be inferred that the infliction of a legal sentence would have an earnest and effectual meaning. Accordingly, the crowd was sombre and grave. The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentrated at her [scarlet A]. It was almost intolerable to be borne. Of an impulsive and passionate nature, she had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely, wreaking itself in every variety of insult; but there was a quality so much more terrible in the solemn mood of the popular mind, that she longed rather to behold all those rigid countenances contorted with scornful merriment, and herself the object. Had a roar of laughter burst from the multitude—each man, each woman, each little shrill-voiced child, contributing their individual parts—Hester Prynne might have repaid them all with a bitter and disdainful smile. But, under the leaden infliction which it was her doom to endure, she felt, at moments, as if she must needs shriek out with the full power of her lungs, and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the ground, or else go mad at once.

Yet there were intervals when the whole scene, in which she was the most conspicuous object, seemed to vanish from her eyes, or, at least, glimmered indistinctly before them, like a mass of imperfectly shaped and spectral images. Her mind, and especially her memory, was preternaturally active, and kept bringing up other scenes than this roughly hewn street of a little town, on the edge of the western wilderness: other faces than were lowering upon her from beneath the brims of those steeple-crowned hats. Reminiscences, the most trifling and immaterial, passages of infancy and school-days, sports, childish quarrels, and the little domestic traits of her maiden years, came swarming back upon her, intermingled with recollections of whatever was gravest in her subsequent life; one picture precisely as vivid as another; as if all were of similar importance, or all alike a play. Possibly, it was an instinctive device of her spirit to relieve itself by the exhibition of these phantasmagoric forms, from the cruel weight and hardness of the reality.

Be that as it might, the scaffold of the pillory was a point of view that revealed to Hester Prynne the entire track along which she had been treading, since her happy infancy. Standing on that miserable eminence, she saw again her native village, in Old England, and her paternal home: a decayed house of grey stone, with a poverty-stricken aspect, but retaining a half obliterated shield of arms over the portal, in token of antique gentility. She saw her father's face, with its bold brow, and reverend white beard that flowed over the old-fashioned Elizabethan ruff; her mother's, too, with the look of heedful and anxious love which it always wore in her remembrance, and which, even since her death, had so often laid the impediment of a gentle remonstrance in her daughter's pathway. She saw her own face, glowing with girlish beauty, and illuminating all the interior of the dusky mirror in which she had been wont to gaze at it. There she beheld another countenance, of a man well stricken in years, a pale, thin, scholar-like visage, with eyes dim and bleared by the lamp-light that had served them to pore over many ponderous books. Yet those same bleared optics had a strange, penetrating power, when it was their owner's purpose to read the human soul. This figure of the study and the cloister, as Hester Prynne's womanly fancy failed not to recall, was slightly deformed, with the left shoulder a trifle higher than the right… Lastly, in lieu of these shifting scenes, came back the rude market-place of the Puritan, settlement, with all the townspeople assembled, and levelling their stern regards at Hester Prynne—yes, at herself—who stood on the scaffold of the pillory, an infant on her arm, and the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.

Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes these were her realities—all else had vanished!
1Deep humiliation and disgrace

Which of the following correctly summarizes the main message of this excerpt of the novel?

Hester climbs the scaffold to take her place among the forever shamed and despised criminals.

Hester endures the punishment of public shame with only her memories to relieve the anguish.

Hester has a few moments of peace despite a turbulent and frightened mind.

Hester makes a mistake and must pay for it with a display of public shame.

I chose B

Answer 11

Now for the rest of the questions, you can just refer to the exerpts above and I will tell you which one the question goes with :-)

Answer 12

Is B right?

Answer 13

i am not sure....

Answer 14

I will just go with B and hope :-)

Answer 15

This goes with the chapter II exerpt
Which words best describe the theme of this excerpt?

Family honor and redemption

Pity and fear

Shame and remorse

Sympathy and regret

Answer 16

I think it is c

Answer 17

This one goes with THE MINISTER'S VIGIL

4)What is the main effect of Hawthorne's choice to start this chapter with a reference to a dream?

It creates a growing sense of sadness.

It implies readers should not trust Dimmesdale.

It suggests Dimmesdale's state of mind.

It suggests the scene is not that significant.

I chose C

Answer 18

This goes with THE MINISTER'S VIGIL

5)What would be lost if the author had used dialogue to convey the ideas in this excerpt?

Emotions and motives would be less apparent.

Plot and pace would be slower and less engaging.

Tension would be deeper and more intense.

Tone and mood would be less detailed and rich.

I chose B

Answer 19

This one goes with Chapter II: The Marketplace

6)Part A: How do Hester's family memories contribute to the development of the theme?

Please fill in blank 1 using A, B, C, or D.

A. They allow the reader a short break from the tension to focus on minor details.
B. They create a greater sense of the injustice of her punishment which creates irony.
C. They create a contradiction between the circumstance of her looming parenthood.
D. They suggest the present is more painful as her childhood was rather ideal.

Part B:
Select two quotations that help develop the answer to Part A and enter your selections in blanks 2 and 3 provided, making sure your answers are in alphabetical order.

E. …but without undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head
F. The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt
G. Yet there were intervals when the whole scene, …seemed to vanish from her eyes
H. Possibly, it was an instinctive device of her spirit to relieve itself
I. …the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.
J. She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast that it sent forth a cry…

Answer 20

blank 1: A
Blank 2:F
blank 3:j

Answer 21

THE MINISTER'S VIGIL, excerpt

7)Which line from the excerpt provides details that connect Dimmesdale's act of climbing the scaffold with the acts of criminals?

"black and weather-stained with the storm"

"with the tread of many culprits…"

"remained standing beneath the balcony "

"muffled the whole expanse of sky"

B

Answer 22

THE MINISTER'S VIGIL, excerpt
Which line from the excerpt supports the claim that "there was no peril of discovery…"

"It was an obscure night in early May."

"they would have discerned no face above the platform…"

"until morning should redden in the east…"

"Was it but the mockery of penitence?"

A

Answer 23

THE MINISTER'S VIGIL, excerpt
Which line from the excerpt supports the claim that "there was no peril of discovery…"

"It was an obscure night in early May."

"they would have discerned no face above the platform…"

"until morning should redden in the east…"

"Was it but the mockery of penitence?"

A

Answer 24

THE MINISTER'S VIGIL, excerpt

Part A: What does the text imply is Dimmesdale's "great horror of mind"?

Please fill in blank 1 using A, B, C, or D.

A. Creating a scene in the middle of town
B. Failing to save the town's people
C. Having his guilt discovered
D. Receiving forgiveness too quickly

Part B:
Select two quotations that support your answer to Part A and enter your selections in blanks 2 and 3 provided, making sure your answers are in alphabetical order.

E. ...and clog his throat with catarrh and cough
F. …the expectant audience of to-morrow's prayer…
G. A mockery at which angels blushed and wept, …
H. He had been driven hither by the impulse of that Remorse
I. …as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast…
J. He looked like a ghost evoked unseasonably from the grave

Answer 25

@timo86m could you please help

Answer 26

I really need the help. I would appreciate it if you could at least try. Have you ever had an assignment that would cost you your whol grade if you failed it? Well, that is what this is so I need your help

Answer 27

Blank 1 I believe is A

Answer 28

Actually forget a. I don't know if it is that one. I know it isn't D

Answer 29

I think blank 1 is C

Answer 30

Blank 2: E
Blank 3:H

Answer 31

@e.mccormick @ramyawad @Jadeishere

Answer 32

@klorainewilliams you did this hw I am do in it to can you help.pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Answer 33

where these all correct?