1. Rewrite the scene in the forest between Dimmesdale and Hester, using modern language in their dialogue.

2. Write a description of Pearl’s future after the novel ends. Does she marry? Have a family? What is her life like? Be sure your choices are consistent with what you know about Pearl and the events at the end of the novel.

3. Write a short story in which you consider how The Scarlet Letter would have been different if Chillingworth’s ship had wrecked and he had never come ashore in the New World.

4. Create a Web site for The Scarlet Letter with principle areas including the authors’s background, as well as the setting, characters, symbols, and themes of the novel.

5. Create a collage that shows the relationships of the characters in the story and explain your thinking to your audience.

6. Act out a key scene in the story and convey the importance of its nature in the context of the book.

7. Write a report on the actual events of history in Boston during the years 1630-1650.

8. Research Hawthorne’s earlier stories (described in the introduction) and explain their connection to The Scarlet Letter. Also included could be “The Maypole of Merrimount.”

9. Research any of the following topics: Anne Hutchinson, John Winthrop, New England witchcraft/Salem, Hawthorne’s Puritan ancestors, Ann Hibbins, Cotton Mather, “The Crucible.”