Question

1. How does the Governor's house contrast and contradict the simplicity of Puritan values, as described in Chapter 7 of The Scarlet Letter?

A. Hester finds the Governor's house so ornate that she doesn't know how to act, which is contradictory because she has been there many times.
B. The Governor's house is very simple and plain, which seems out of place for a person in such authority.
C. It seems strange that the Governor has such a small home when he's the head of a colony of people.
D. It's ironic that the Governor's home is so beautiful and ornate when so many Puritans believed in simplicity.

Answer 1

The correct answer is D. It's ironic that the Governor's home is so beautiful and ornate when so many Puritans believed in simplicity.

This fact underlines the hypocrisy of the social system which had been punishing Hester for her sin, and threatening to take her daughter away. The author himself comments on this: "The brilliancy might have befitted Aladdin's palace, rather than the mansion of a grave old Puritan ruler." The building is an exponent of the aristocratic style and way of life, which contrasts the Puritan values.