50 free The Scarlet Letter trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Scarlet Letter is the Puritan Boston novel that gave American literature its first great heroine and generations of students their first encounter with the word 'ignominy'. This quiz covers the book, its author and its afterlife. The easy questions ask what the A stands for, who Hester's daughter is, what her husband calls himself, which minister is hiding his guilt and where Hester must stand for three hours. From there it moves into the details: the rosebush by the prison door, the meteor over the scaffold, the meaning the townsfolk later gave the letter, the tombstone's heraldic epitaph and the historical figures such as Anne Hutchinson and Ann Hibbins who wander into the story. The harder end is for Hawthorne readers: the Custom-House sketch that enraged Salem, Ticknor and Fields and the 2,500 mechanised copies that sold in ten days, the $1,500 it earned over fourteen years, the myth about James T. Fields stretching a novelette, the 'w' Hawthorne added to escape a witch-trial judge, George Eliot's and D. H. Lawrence's verdicts, Elizabeth Pain's gravestone, Lillian Gish's silent Hester, the Demi Moore ending, John Updike's trilogy and Emma Stone's red A in Easy A. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the novel, its author and its adaptations, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Moby-Dick, American literature and classic novels quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote The Scarlet Letter?
Nathaniel Hawthorne
It was published in 1850 and became one of the first mass-produced books in America.
Q 02What does Hester Prynne's scarlet letter 'A' stand for?
Adultery
Later in the book many townspeople insist it means something more flattering.
Q 03In which colony is the novel set?
Massachusetts Bay
The action runs from 1642 to 1649 in Puritan Boston.
Q 04What is Hester's daughter described as being, in another form?
The scarlet letter itself
She is 'the scarlet letter endowed in life', a constant reminder of the sin.
Q 05How long must Hester stand on the scaffold at the start of the novel?
Three hours
The scaffold of a former gallows appears three times, marking the book's beginning, middle and end.
Q 06What name does Hester's long-lost husband adopt on arriving in Boston?
Roger Chillingworth
He had been presumed lost at sea after sending Hester ahead to the New World.
Q 07What profession does Chillingworth take up in Boston?
Physician
He is first brought to Hester's cell to calm her and the baby with roots and herbs.
Q 08Which minister is secretly the father of Hester's child?
Arthur Dimmesdale
His name contains 'dim', evoking the faintness and gloom of his guilty state.
Q 09How does Hester earn her living after leaving prison?
Needlework
Her embroidery is of extraordinary quality, and she lives in a cottage on the edge of town.
Q 10Which governor does Hester petition when the church threatens to take her daughter away?
Bellingham
Dimmesdale persuades him to let the child remain with her mother.
Q 11What does Chillingworth find when he pulls aside the sleeping Dimmesdale's vestment?
A symbol of shame on his chest
Most witnesses later swear they saw a scarlet A on the minister's chest when he dies.
Q 12Where does Hester meet Dimmesdale to reveal her husband's identity and propose escape?
In the forest
She convinces him to sail for Europe with her and the child.
Q 13On which day does Dimmesdale finally confess on the scaffold and die?
Election Day
He has just preached one of his most inspired sermons.
Q 21Which biblical story is depicted in the tapestry in Dimmesdale's room?
David and Bathsheba
The tale of an adulterous king was a pointed choice of decor for the guilty minister.
Q 22Whose gravestone in King's Chapel Burying Ground is said to have inspired the lovers' grave?
Elizabeth Pain
Scholar Laurie Rozakis suggests a flogged woman named Hester Craford as another source.
Q 23What is the title of the introductory sketch that enraged the people of Salem?
The Custom-House
Hawthorne reprinted it unchanged in the second edition, disclaiming any ill feeling.
Q 14Who inherits a substantial fortune from Chillingworth after his death?
Pearl
He dies within a year of losing his object of vengeance, leaving property in New England and Europe.
Q 15What heraldic epitaph is on the shared tombstone of Hester and Dimmesdale?
'On a field, sable, the letter A, gules'
It means a red letter A on a black background.
Q 16What do many townspeople later say the letter A stands for, so strong is Hester?
Able
The novel says they refused to interpret the letter by its original signification.
Q 17What celestial event, shaped like an A, appears during Dimmesdale's night vigil on the scaffold?
A meteor
To him it is God exposing his sin; others read it as a sign of an angel.
Q 18Which plant grows beside the prison door as a symbol of nature's beauty amid sorrow?
A rosebush
Hawthorne offers it as an invitation to find 'some sweet moral blossom' in the tale.
Q 19Which real religious dissenter, exiled from Boston in the 1630s, is mentioned in Chapter 1?
Anne Hutchinson
The chapter is 'The Prison Door'; she moved to Rhode Island after her excommunication.
Q 20Which real woman, executed for witchcraft in 1656, tempts Hester toward witchcraft?
Ann Hibbins
Hawthorne makes her the sister of the colony's governor.
Q 24Which Boston firm published The Scarlet Letter in the spring of 1850?
Ticknor and Fields
It began Hawthorne's most lucrative period, though the book earned him little over fourteen years.
Q 25How quickly did the first mechanised printing of 2,500 copies sell out?
Within ten days
Most home-grown books of the era were hand-bound and sold in tiny quantities.
Q 26How much did the novel earn Hawthorne over fourteen years?
$1,500
It was an instant best-seller nonetheless.
Q 27What is untrue about the old claim that James T. Fields shaped the book?
That he had a novelette lengthened
Fields did persuade Hawthorne to publish it alone, but had nothing to do with its length.
Q 28At which Salem address did Hawthorne write the manuscript?
14 Mall Street
The Peter Edgerley House still stands as a private residence and was the family's last Salem home.
Q 29Which English novelist ranked it with Hiawatha as America's two 'most masterly productions'?
George Eliot
She paired it with Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha.
Q 30Which 20th-century writer called it a 'perfect work of the American imagination'?
D. H. Lawrence
Henry James praised its 'indefinable purity and lightness of conception'.