Hester

Explain the significance of one of Isobel’s stitching motifs aside from her scarlet “A’s.” Include evidence from the text to support your analysis.

Explore the relationship between gendered justice and racial justice in the novel. How are they related, if at all? Include evidence from the text to support your analysis.

Isobel insists she prefers romance stories with happy endings. What makes this preference feminist? Include evidence from the text to support your analysis.

Hester’s daughter Pearl is a significant character in The Scarlet Letter, but Isobel’s daughter Margaret is not born until the end of Hester. Why do you think Laurie Lico Albanese made this decision? How does this decision affect Isobel’s characterization as a woman and a mother?

Albanese sometimes alludes to events that take place after her novel’s setting in 1829. What does this anachronism contribute to the novel?

At one point, Isobel thinks, “Can the colors be both a blessing and an affliction?” (250). What is the novel’s answer to this question? Include evidence from the text to support your answer.

Research Nathaniel Hawthorne’s definition of romance. How does genre shape understanding of a text? Is Hester a romance in Hawthorne’s sense? Is it a romance in a modern sense? Is it neither?

What attracts Isobel to Nat? Why does she ultimately fall in love with Captain William Darling? Include evidence from the text to support your analysis.