1)At the very beginning of the novel, Hawthorne describes a rosebush in front of the prison, breaks the fourth wall, and offers the reader a rose. Why does he do this? What does the rose/rosebush symbolize?
2)The women gossiping about Hester are described as being made of "a coarser fibre ... than ... their fair descendants" (55). The reason is that "throughout the chain of ancestry, every successive mother has transmitted to her child a fainter bloom, a more delicate and briefer beauty, and a slighter physical frame, if not a character of less force and solidity, than her own (55). What does this mean? How does this relate to the rest of the novel?
3)Is Hester's decision not to reveal the father of her child a measure to protect the father, or make him bear his guilt internally? Is there another motive?
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