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“Aha! And is it Mistress Hester that has a word for old Roger Chillingworth?” answered he, raising himself from his stooping posture. “With all my heart! Why, Mistress, I hear good tidings of you on all hands! No longer ago than yester-eve, a magistrate, a wise and godly man, was discoursing of your affairs, Mistress Hester, and whispered me that there had been question concerning you in the council. It was debated whether or no, with safety to the common weal, yonder scarlet letter might be taken off your bosom. On my life, Hester, I made my entreaty to the worshipful magistrate that it might be done forthwith!” 4 “It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off this badge,” calmly replied Hester. “Were I worthy to be quit of it, it would fall away of its own nature, or be transformed into something that should speak a different purport.”
In this scene Hester has gone to Chillingworth house to confront him. As she has discvored last night from being on the scaffold with Dimmesdale; that he is being tormented and his tormentor is Chillingworth. When Hester first arrives at his house, Chillingworth tells Hester has heard that the Scarlet Letter might be removed from her. Hester reponds that is not up to the people or herself when the letter will be removed, and that it will be gone when it choses to be.
This scene shows that Hester has a deeper meaning of the letter. She knows what she has done and that she must fufill her punishment. Even if she is a good person. This shows her being a person that is not selfish and has a respect for laws and codes. This tiny peace od dialouge explains what kind of person she is and what she has gone through.
Although this statement is contradict later when Hester is in the forest and throws it down on th ground and wishes to toss the letter in to the ocean. However after Dimmesdae death she late rerelizes that she must serveout her punishment.
This passage shows that when we commit a crime we must be punished. Even if we do not wish it. For it is not up to us. As we will never become truly happy if we do not serve our punishments.
But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed, from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman. She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of which they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate. Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. For years past she had looked from this estranged point of view at human institutions, and whatever priests or legislators had established; criticizing all with hardly more reverence than the Indian would feel for the clerical band, the judicial robe, the pillory, the gallows, the fireside, or the church. The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
This paragraph i show what the scarlet letter tells about hester. it is now a apart of her that will not be able to be removed unless she does it herself. it is not olny stuck to her but it has not become a big part of her.
the scarlet letter is something that other women have not expreanced. it has given hester shame and but her in a stuation where she is unlike all the other women that suround her.
this shows that hester is a type of woman that is not going to give up. just because it is somehting that sticks to her it has changed her in mmany ways as well. this passage shows the true them of the scarlet letter it show that the letter "a" stands for adulderar. it shows that she i a women that will not give up no matter what. Hawthorne mainly whats to show that things from the past my stick to you rather if they are good or bad but that does not make the person that you truly are!
Yes, I hate him!" repeated Hester, more bitterly than before. "He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!"
This scene Hester says that she hates Chillingworth.
This scene hester says that Chillingworth betrayed her by making her think that every thing would be better if they married. This is really the only time in the book Hester hates anyone.
This qoute applys in many different ways were back in there times the family would arrange a marriage for the two. and sometimes it was for money purpose. and the younger women would not like this but it is the way the cook crumble
"Pearl, that wild and flighty little elf, stole softly towards him, and taking his hand in the grasp of both of her own, laid her cheek against it; a caress so tender, and withal so unobtrusive, that her mother, who was looking on, asked herself, 'Is that my Pearl?'"
This passage reveals that Hester is not fully allowing herself to convey Pearl as her child ultimately. She committed adultery, and in the act of sin produced a child that bears no good, but evil.
The issues that this passages comes across, from the main theme in the reader's prospective. These include: adultery is a sin that is not taken lightly among any of the townspeople, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet "A" on her chest until death, and that she has a sense of perpetual self-guilt.
This passage is unique because it spoon feeds the reader to tell them that Hester, morally does not own the child; Pearl. For one, she is a demon child and she produced the child with sin. Therefore Pearl should not even be considered a child of Hester because of the sin she committed.
This plays out later in the novel because Dimmesdale dies and the biological father of Pearl is no longer there. Later on in the novel, Pearl and Hester somewhat disappear and the real connection between the two is only at death, because Hester was shunned throughout the entire book.
This passage tells alot about Hawthorne's view and take on The Scarlet Letter itself because he is trying to get the reader to understand that even though Hester and Dimmesdale are the parents of Pearl, it does not mean that they should take pride of her. She committed adultery and betrayed her family, and the outcome was a child that is creepy, demented, and mood altering in the novel.
For years past she had looked from this estranged point of view at human institutions, and whatever priests or legislators had established; criticising all with hardly more reverence than the Indian would feel for the clerical band, the judicial robe, the pillory, the gallows, the fireside, or the church. The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
This paragraph shows Hester as the person society has made her. She was seen as tainted by society and "outlawed" by them. Hester had endured public humiliation for over seven years and this paragraph reveals that it made her stronger. She learned throughout the time that she wore the scarlet letter that she could be set free from it. Only she could know what it was like to be pointed at and mocked for such a long time, but it made her a stonger and better person.
This passage shows that Hester is the hero in the novel. She endured so much throughout the novel yet is the most well rounded character thorughout. Hester is by far the most giving and understanding person in the whole book, and is constituted as a vilian in her town.
It is impotant that Hawthorne wrote this paragraph because it reveals to the reader that even though Hester had to suffer and that it did effect her deeply, she found a way to not be bitter. She did not loathe the town leaders who punished her, she showed her true compassion and posistivity by not retaliating. this paragraph is very revealing about her inmost self.
The chapters after this one show Hester growing more bold and willing. When Hster suggested that she and Dimmesdale run off together she shows that she broke free of the scarlet letter. If not for the seven years of lonliness and solitude she would have never had the courage or guts to leave it all behind. This chapter sets the stage for Hester and Dimmesdale's chat in the woods about their future.
This shows that Hawthorne wanted to portray a sense of strength and power in his character who in the public's eyes was weak. He made a bold move in having Hester, a woman, become the hero and the strong one, and maybe this show him as a bit of a feminist. Not an extreme one but one nonetheless.
"Hester sought not to aquire anything beyond a subsistence, of the plainest and most ascetic description, for herself, and a simple abundance for her child. Her own dress was of the coarsest materials and the most sombre hue; with only that one ornament-the scarlet letter-which it was her doom to wear. The cild's attire, on the other hand, was distinguished by a fanciful,or, we might rather say, a fantastic ingenuity, which served, indeed, to heighten the airy charm that early began to develop itself in the little girl, byt which appeared to have also a deeper meaning. We may speak further of it hereafter. Except for that small expenditure in th edecoration of her infant, Hester bestowed all her superfluous means to charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them. Much of the time which she might readily have applied to the better efforts of the art, she employed in the making coarse garments for the poor."
This reveals that even though Hester had sinned, she is also a very good person. What makes this passage unique is that its ironic for a woman to be married and commit adultury were to be giving to the poor.
This passage also shows that she is giving to the poor because she wants to and not to get herself popular. What hester did was not asked of her but she still did it. Hester also is doomed to wear the scarlet letter forever.
Hawthorne views Hester as good and a bad person. He respects the way hester took on the humiliation of wearing the scarlet letter and not revealing the husband by taking all the punishment. He also believes hester was wrong in cheating on Chillingsworth.
There glimmered the embroidered letter, with comfort in its unearthly ray. Elsewhere the token of sin, it was the taper of the sick chamber. It had even thrown its gleam, in the sufferer's bard extremity, across the verge of time. It had shown him where to set his foot, while the light of earth was fast becoming dim, and ere the light of futurity could reach him. In such emergencies Hester's nature showed itself warm and rich--a well-spring of human tenderness, unfailing to every real demand, and inexhaustible by the largest. Her breast, with its badge of shame, was but the softer pillow for the head that needed one. She was self-ordained a Sister of Mercy, or, we may rather say, the world's heavy hand had so ordained her, when neither the world nor she looked forward to this result. The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her--so much power to do, and power to sympathize--that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength.
In this passage it talks about how the scarlet letter has gone through a symbol of sin to a symbol of goodness that the whole town has come to interpret as "Able". It is not from time that it has come to mean "Able" but through Hester’s charitable work throughout the community.
This passage reveals that Hester has taken the lemons of her life and turned it into a lemonade that has come to be accepted and cherished by the town. This quote also touches on how someone who has committed the ultimate sin (Dimmesdale) can still be viewed as a well respected and cherished part of the community.
This passage is important, above others, to Hester because it shows just how far she has come from all her hard work throughout the community. The Themes of this passage will be carried on throughout the novel as Hester is only furthered admired especially when it comes to the day of Dimmesdale Electoral Sermon.
This passage reveals that Hawthorne's view and purpose of the Scarlet Letter is to show people that even when someone is viewed at their lowest there is still a chance that through hard work someone can turn around the public opinion of one's self.
Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them. Much of the time, which she might readily have applied to the better efforts of her art, she employed in making coarse garments for the poor. It is probable that there was an idea of penance in this mode of occupation, and that she offered up a real sacrifice of enjoyment in devoting so many hours to such rude handiwork.
This passage talks about how Hester gives all her unnessary means to charity and makes the poor clothes. Even though she gave the poor these things that were still ungreatful and felt superior because of the way the town saw her.
This passage reveals that Hester is a conpassionate person, not the sinful woman that the town portrays her to be.
This passage deals with the issue of whether or not Hester is a sinful person. Even though she did sleep with another man and have his baby, Hester states that she was tricked into loving her husband. She claims that she was to young to love. Also she thought that her husband had been killed. This passage is improtant because it shows the true person that Hester is. She would not have slept with Dimmesdale if she had the slighest feeling that she was being sinful or unfaithful to her husband.
This issue continues thoughout the book. The town does not acknowledge her existance because they think that she is a sinful person.
Hawthorne might view the scarlet letter cage in which you can not excape until the truth is let out, and until then people are going to judge you on what they have heard.
"But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman. She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness, as vast, as intricate, and shadowy as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of which they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate. Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. For years past she had looked from this estranged point of view at human institutions, and whatever priests or legislators had established; criticising all with hardly more reverence than the Indian would feel for the clerical band, the judicial robe, the pillory, the gallows, the fireside, or the church. The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her flee. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers--stern and wild ones--and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss."
This paragraph shows that Hester must remov the Scarlet Letter herself if she wants it gone forver. She knows it's the big thing about her and everyone knows her as "the scarlet letter".
Other women do not know what it is like to have the Scarlett Letter implanted on their chest all the time. They must go by what it looks like on Hester and what she experiences with it.
This one is unique because Hester knows that th Scarlet Letter is a bad thing and she knows she is not like other women in the town. It upsets her. It shows that Hester is the type of women who looks ahead to the future and never holds back. She knows she was wrong, but she holds her head up high and goes on with her life. She knows she has an "A" on her chest and she's not afraid to walk into town with it on. He's trying to make the point that nothing has to stick to you if you don't want it to and it doesn't have to.
Yes, I hate him!" repeated Hester, more bitterly than before. "He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!"
This reveals that even though they are married she hates Chillingworth more than anything else.
Throughout the rest of the book Hester really does not hate anyone, but this shows that no matter how optimistic she is, she still can't help her hatred for Chillingworth.
It plays out that Chillingworth is always getting in the way.
Hawthorne's view i believe is that even someone you loved can betray you and trick you.
"Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl! We must not talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest"
In this scene, it is the holiday where the magistrates are elected, and Hester and Pearl are in the marketplace watching the parade.
This scene shows of how well Hester knows of the punishment of letting sinful secrets be known, and she tries to pass this knowledge on to Pearl.
Hester's goal throughout the whole book is to keep the name of Pearl's father unknown. This is ironic because Pearl's father, Dimmesdale tells that he is her father to the public.
The effect of the symbol--or rather, of the position in respect to society that was indicated by it--on the mind of Hester Prynne herself, was powerful and peculiar. All the light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline, which might have been repulsive, had she possessed friends or companions to be repelled by it. Even the attractiveness of her person had undergone a similar change. It might be partly owing to the studied austerity of her dress, and partly to the lack of demonstration in her manners. It was a sad transformation, too, that her rich and luxuriant hair had either been cut off, or was so completely hidden by a cap, that not a shining lock of it ever once gushed into the sunshine. It was due in part to all these causes, but still more to something else, that there seemed to be no longer any thing in Hester's face for Love to dwell upon; nothing in Hester's form, though majestic and statue-like, that Passion would ever dream of clasping in its embrace; nothing in Hester's bosom, to make it ever again the pillow of Affection. Some attribute had departed from her, the permanence of which had been essential to keep her a woman. Such is frequently the fate, and such the stern development, of the feminine character and person, when the woman has encountered, and lived through, an experience of peculiar severity. If she be all tenderness, she will die. If she survive, the tenderness will either be crushed out of her, or--and the outward semblance is the same--crushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself more. The latter is perhaps the truest theory. She who has once been woman, and ceased to be so, might at any moment become a woman again, if there were only the magic touch to effect the transformation. We shall see whether Hester Prynne were ever afterwards so touched, and so transfigured.
This passage basically gives an idea to the reader, that the scarlet letter was ultimately a symbolic meaning to Hester, rather than a demonic curse put on her. It reveals to Hester as a character, that she is a very strong woman, and that even through difficult times, she can easily handle adversity when things don't go her way.
And here, by a sudden impulse, she turned to the young clergyman, Mr. Dimmesdale, at whom, up to this moment, she had seemed hardly so much as once to direct her eyes. "Speak thou for me!" cried she. "Thou wast my pastor, and hadst charge of my soul, and knowest me better than these men can. I will not lose the child! Speak for me! Thou knowest--for thou hast sympathies which these men lack--thou knowest what is in my heart, and what are a mother's rights, and how much the stronger they are when that mother has but her child and the scarlet letter! Look thou to it! I will not lose the child! Look to it!"
this passage reveals that the pastor REALLY does know her heart and her soul. He also knows her better than anyone else, but no one knows that. this touches on the part of the novel where Hester wants everyone to know the sin that not only she has committed, but Dimmesdale has also committed. this scene is important because she is using irony to show that Dimmesdale really does know everything, but she is hinting to everyone that he committed the crime. Dimmmesdale admits to everyone in the end of the novel that he did commit adultery with Hester.
"In replay to her mother's command and entreaty that she would behave more decorously, little Pearl paused to gather the prickly burrs from a tall burdock, which grew beside the tomb. Taking a handful of these, she arranged them along the lines of the scarlet letter that decorated the maternal bosom. to which the burrs, as their nature was, tenaciously adhered. Hester did not pluck them off."
If Pearl really does symbolize the scarlet letter, then this passage shows that Hester is not willing to go against her sin (scarlet letter/pearl) and does not want to keep her sin inside. She deserves her sin to be shown.
It reminds every reader that Hester has to carry that burden everywhere she goes it will never go away. those burrs/sin stick to her and will not come off.
This passage sets the stage for the different steps in Hester's life where she gets closer and closer to taking off the scarlet letter and shedding her sin. At this point in the story though, it is still stuck to her and everything seems hopeless to her.
Hawthorne wants the reader to understand that Hester is desperate right now and feels as if she will never escape sin because it is all around her. He will send you on a roller coaster ride because it will get worse then better, then worse again. All the way to when she loses the scarlet letter and dies.
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ReplyDelete“Aha! And is it Mistress Hester that has a word for old Roger Chillingworth?” answered he, raising himself from his stooping posture. “With all my heart! Why, Mistress, I hear good tidings of you on all hands! No longer ago than yester-eve, a magistrate, a wise and godly man, was discoursing of your affairs, Mistress Hester, and whispered me that there had been question concerning you in the council. It was debated whether or no, with safety to the common weal, yonder scarlet letter might be taken off your bosom. On my life, Hester, I made my entreaty to the worshipful magistrate that it might be done forthwith!” 4
ReplyDelete“It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off this badge,” calmly replied Hester. “Were I worthy to be quit of it, it would fall away of its own nature, or be transformed into something that should speak a different purport.”
In this scene Hester has gone to Chillingworth house to confront him. As she has discvored last night from being on the scaffold with Dimmesdale; that he is being tormented and his tormentor is Chillingworth. When Hester first arrives at his house, Chillingworth tells Hester has heard that the Scarlet Letter might be removed from her. Hester reponds that is not up to the people or herself when the letter will be removed, and that it will be gone when it choses to be.
This scene shows that Hester has a deeper meaning of the letter. She knows what she has done and that she must fufill her punishment. Even if she is a good person. This shows her being a person that is not selfish and has a respect for laws and codes. This tiny peace od dialouge explains what kind of person she is and what she has gone through.
Although this statement is contradict later when Hester is in the forest and throws it down on th ground and wishes to toss the letter in to the ocean. However after Dimmesdae death she late rerelizes that she must serveout her punishment.
This passage shows that when we commit a crime we must be punished. Even if we do not wish it. For it is not up to us. As we will never become truly happy if we do not serve our punishments.
But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed, from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman. She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of which they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate. Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. For years past she had looked from this estranged point of view at human institutions, and whatever priests or legislators had established; criticizing all with hardly more reverence than the Indian would feel for the clerical band, the judicial robe, the pillory, the gallows, the fireside, or the church. The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
ReplyDeleteThis paragraph i show what the scarlet letter tells about hester. it is now a apart of her that will not be able to be removed unless she does it herself. it is not olny stuck to her but it has not become a big part of her.
the scarlet letter is something that other women have not expreanced. it has given hester shame and but her in a stuation where she is unlike all the other women that suround her.
this shows that hester is a type of woman that is not going to give up. just because it is somehting that sticks to her it has changed her in mmany ways as well. this passage shows the true them of the scarlet letter it show that the letter "a" stands for adulderar. it shows that she i a women that will not give up no matter what. Hawthorne mainly whats to show that things from the past my stick to you rather if they are good or bad but that does not make the person that you truly are!
Yes, I hate him!" repeated Hester, more bitterly than before. "He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!"
ReplyDeleteThis scene Hester says that she hates Chillingworth.
This scene hester says that Chillingworth betrayed her by making her think that every thing would be better if they married. This is really the only time in the book Hester hates anyone.
This qoute applys in many different ways were back in there times the family would arrange a marriage for the two. and sometimes it was for money purpose. and the younger women would not like this but it is the way the cook crumble
"Pearl, that wild and flighty little elf, stole softly towards him, and taking his hand in the grasp of both of her own, laid her cheek against it; a caress so tender, and withal so unobtrusive, that her mother, who was looking on, asked herself, 'Is that my Pearl?'"
ReplyDeleteThis passage reveals that Hester is not fully allowing herself to convey Pearl as her child ultimately. She committed adultery, and in the act of sin produced a child that bears no good, but evil.
The issues that this passages comes across, from the main theme in the reader's prospective. These include: adultery is a sin that is not taken lightly among any of the townspeople, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet "A" on her chest until death, and that she has a sense of perpetual self-guilt.
This passage is unique because it spoon feeds the reader to tell them that Hester, morally does not own the child; Pearl. For one, she is a demon child and she produced the child with sin. Therefore Pearl should not even be considered a child of Hester because of the sin she committed.
This plays out later in the novel because Dimmesdale dies and the biological father of Pearl is no longer there. Later on in the novel, Pearl and Hester somewhat disappear and the real connection between the two is only at death, because Hester was shunned throughout the entire book.
This passage tells alot about Hawthorne's view and take on The Scarlet Letter itself because he is trying to get the reader to understand that even though Hester and Dimmesdale are the parents of Pearl, it does not mean that they should take pride of her. She committed adultery and betrayed her family, and the outcome was a child that is creepy, demented, and mood altering in the novel.
Katie McCarthy:
ReplyDeleteFor years past she had looked from this estranged point of view at human institutions, and whatever priests or legislators had established; criticising all with hardly more reverence than the Indian would feel for the clerical band, the judicial robe, the pillory, the gallows, the fireside, or the church. The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
This paragraph shows Hester as the person society has made her. She was seen as tainted by society and "outlawed" by them. Hester had endured public humiliation for over seven years and this paragraph reveals that it made her stronger. She learned throughout the time that she wore the scarlet letter that she could be set free from it. Only she could know what it was like to be pointed at and mocked for such a long time, but it made her a stonger and better person.
This passage shows that Hester is the hero in the novel. She endured so much throughout the novel yet is the most well rounded character thorughout. Hester is by far the most giving and understanding person in the whole book, and is constituted as a vilian in her town.
It is impotant that Hawthorne wrote this paragraph because it reveals to the reader that even though Hester had to suffer and that it did effect her deeply, she found a way to not be bitter. She did not loathe the town leaders who punished her, she showed her true compassion and posistivity by not retaliating. this paragraph is very revealing about her inmost self.
The chapters after this one show Hester growing more bold and willing. When Hster suggested that she and Dimmesdale run off together she shows that she broke free of the scarlet letter. If not for the seven years of lonliness and solitude she would have never had the courage or guts to leave it all behind. This chapter sets the stage for Hester and Dimmesdale's chat in the woods about their future.
This shows that Hawthorne wanted to portray a sense of strength and power in his character who in the public's eyes was weak. He made a bold move in having Hester, a woman, become the hero and the strong one, and maybe this show him as a bit of a feminist. Not an extreme one but one nonetheless.
"Hester sought not to aquire anything beyond a subsistence, of the plainest and most ascetic description, for herself, and a simple abundance for her child. Her own dress was of the coarsest materials and the most sombre hue; with only that one ornament-the scarlet letter-which it was her doom to wear. The cild's attire, on the other hand, was distinguished by a fanciful,or, we might rather say, a fantastic ingenuity, which served, indeed, to heighten the airy charm that early began to develop itself in the little girl, byt which appeared to have also a deeper meaning. We may speak further of it hereafter. Except for that small expenditure in th edecoration of her infant, Hester bestowed all her superfluous means to charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them. Much of the time which she might readily have applied to the better efforts of the art, she employed in the making coarse garments for the poor."
ReplyDeleteThis reveals that even though Hester had sinned, she is also a very good person. What makes this passage unique is that its ironic for a woman to be married and commit adultury were to be giving to the poor.
This passage also shows that she is giving to the poor because she wants to and not to get herself popular. What hester did was not asked of her but she still did it.
Hester also is doomed to wear the scarlet letter forever.
Hawthorne views Hester as good and a bad person. He respects the way hester took on the humiliation of wearing the scarlet letter and not revealing the husband by taking all the punishment. He also believes hester was wrong in cheating on Chillingsworth.
There glimmered the embroidered letter, with comfort in its unearthly ray. Elsewhere the token of sin, it was the taper of the sick chamber. It had even thrown its gleam, in the sufferer's bard extremity, across the verge of time. It had shown him where to set his foot, while the light of earth was fast becoming dim, and ere the light of futurity could reach him. In such emergencies Hester's nature showed itself warm and rich--a well-spring of human tenderness, unfailing to every real demand, and inexhaustible by the largest. Her breast, with its badge of shame, was but the softer pillow for the head that needed one. She was self-ordained a Sister of Mercy, or, we may rather say, the world's heavy hand had so ordained her, when neither the world nor she looked forward to this result. The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her--so much power to do, and power to sympathize--that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength.
ReplyDeleteIn this passage it talks about how the scarlet letter has gone through a symbol of sin to a symbol of goodness that the whole town has come to interpret as "Able". It is not from time that it has come to mean "Able" but through Hester’s charitable work throughout the community.
This passage reveals that Hester has taken the lemons of her life and turned it into a lemonade that has come to be accepted and cherished by the town. This quote also touches on how someone who has committed the ultimate sin (Dimmesdale) can still be viewed as a well respected and cherished part of the community.
This passage is important, above others, to Hester because it shows just how far she has come from all her hard work throughout the community. The Themes of this passage will be carried on throughout the novel as Hester is only furthered admired especially when it comes to the day of Dimmesdale Electoral Sermon.
This passage reveals that Hawthorne's view and purpose of the Scarlet Letter is to show people that even when someone is viewed at their lowest there is still a chance that through hard work someone can turn around the public opinion of one's self.
Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them. Much of the time, which she might readily have applied to the better efforts of her art, she employed in making coarse garments for the poor. It is probable that there was an idea of penance in this mode of occupation, and that she offered up a real sacrifice of enjoyment in devoting so many hours to such rude handiwork.
ReplyDeleteThis passage talks about how Hester gives all her unnessary means to charity and makes the poor clothes. Even though she gave the poor these things that were still ungreatful and felt superior because of the way the town saw her.
This passage reveals that Hester is a conpassionate person, not the sinful woman that the town portrays her to be.
This passage deals with the issue of whether or not Hester is a sinful person. Even though she did sleep with another man and have his baby, Hester states that she was tricked into loving her husband. She claims that she was to young to love. Also she thought that her husband had been killed. This passage is improtant because it shows the true person that Hester is. She would not have slept with Dimmesdale if she had the slighest feeling that she was being sinful or unfaithful to her husband.
This issue continues thoughout the book. The town does not acknowledge her existance because they think that she is a sinful person.
Hawthorne might view the scarlet letter cage in which you can not excape until the truth is let out, and until then people are going to judge you on what they have heard.
"But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman. She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness, as vast, as intricate, and shadowy as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of which they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate. Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. For years past she had looked from this estranged point of view at human institutions, and whatever priests or legislators had established; criticising all with hardly more reverence than the Indian would feel for the clerical band, the judicial robe, the pillory, the gallows, the fireside, or the church. The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her flee. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers--stern and wild ones--and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss."
ReplyDeleteThis paragraph shows that Hester must remov the Scarlet Letter herself if she wants it gone forver. She knows it's the big thing about her and everyone knows her as "the scarlet letter".
Other women do not know what it is like to have the Scarlett Letter implanted on their chest all the time. They must go by what it looks like on Hester and what she experiences with it.
This one is unique because Hester knows that th Scarlet Letter is a bad thing and she knows she is not like other women in the town. It upsets her. It shows that Hester is the type of women who looks ahead to the future and never holds back. She knows she was wrong, but she holds her head up high and goes on with her life. She knows she has an "A" on her chest and she's not afraid to walk into town with it on. He's trying to make the point that nothing has to stick to you if you don't want it to and it doesn't have to.
Yes, I hate him!" repeated Hester, more bitterly than before. "He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!"
ReplyDeleteThis reveals that even though they are married she hates Chillingworth more than anything else.
Throughout the rest of the book Hester really does not hate anyone, but this shows that no matter how optimistic she is, she still can't help her hatred for Chillingworth.
It plays out that Chillingworth is always getting in the way.
Hawthorne's view i believe is that even someone you loved can betray you and trick you.
"Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl! We must not talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest"
ReplyDeleteIn this scene, it is the holiday where the magistrates are elected, and Hester and Pearl are in the marketplace watching the parade.
This scene shows of how well Hester knows of the punishment of letting sinful secrets be known, and she tries to pass this knowledge on to Pearl.
Hester's goal throughout the whole book is to keep the name of Pearl's father unknown. This is ironic because Pearl's father, Dimmesdale tells that he is her father to the public.
The effect of the symbol--or rather, of the position in respect to society that was indicated by it--on the mind of Hester Prynne herself, was powerful and peculiar. All the light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline, which might have been repulsive, had she possessed friends or companions to be repelled by it. Even the attractiveness of her person had undergone a similar change. It might be partly owing to the studied austerity of her dress, and partly to the lack of demonstration in her manners. It was a sad transformation, too, that her rich and luxuriant hair had either been cut off, or was so completely hidden by a cap, that not a shining lock of it ever once gushed into the sunshine. It was due in part to all these causes, but still more to something else, that there seemed to be no longer any thing in Hester's face for Love to dwell upon; nothing in Hester's form, though majestic and statue-like, that Passion would ever dream of clasping in its embrace; nothing in Hester's bosom, to make it ever again the pillow of Affection. Some attribute had departed from her, the permanence of which had been essential to keep her a woman. Such is frequently the fate, and such the stern development, of the feminine character and person, when the woman has encountered, and lived through, an experience of peculiar severity. If she be all tenderness, she will die. If she survive, the tenderness will either be crushed out of her, or--and the outward semblance is the same--crushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself more. The latter is perhaps the truest theory. She who has once been woman, and ceased to be so, might at any moment become a woman again, if there were only the magic touch to effect the transformation. We shall see whether Hester Prynne were ever afterwards so touched, and so transfigured.
ReplyDeleteThis passage basically gives an idea to the reader, that the scarlet letter was ultimately a symbolic meaning to Hester, rather than a demonic curse put on her. It reveals to Hester as a character, that she is a very strong woman, and that even through difficult times, she can easily handle adversity when things don't go her way.
And here, by a sudden impulse, she turned to the young clergyman, Mr. Dimmesdale, at whom, up to this moment, she had seemed hardly so much as once to direct her eyes. "Speak thou for me!" cried she. "Thou wast my pastor, and hadst charge of my soul, and knowest me better than these men can. I will not lose the child! Speak for me! Thou knowest--for thou hast sympathies which these men lack--thou knowest what is in my heart, and what are a mother's rights, and how much the stronger they are when that mother has but her child and the scarlet letter! Look thou to it! I will not lose the child! Look to it!"
ReplyDeletethis passage reveals that the pastor REALLY does know her heart and her soul. He also knows her better than anyone else, but no one knows that.
this touches on the part of the novel where Hester wants everyone to know the sin that not only she has committed, but Dimmesdale has also committed.
this scene is important because she is using irony to show that Dimmesdale really does know everything, but she is hinting to everyone that he committed the crime.
Dimmmesdale admits to everyone in the end of the novel that he did commit adultery with Hester.
"In replay to her mother's command and entreaty that she would behave more decorously, little Pearl paused to gather the prickly burrs from a tall burdock, which grew beside the tomb. Taking a handful of these, she arranged them along the lines of the scarlet letter that decorated the maternal bosom. to which the burrs, as their nature was, tenaciously adhered. Hester did not pluck them off."
ReplyDeleteIf Pearl really does symbolize the scarlet letter, then this passage shows that Hester is not willing to go against her sin (scarlet letter/pearl) and does not want to keep her sin inside. She deserves her sin to be shown.
It reminds every reader that Hester has to carry that burden everywhere she goes it will never go away. those burrs/sin stick to her and will not come off.
This passage sets the stage for the different steps in Hester's life where she gets closer and closer to taking off the scarlet letter and shedding her sin. At this point in the story though, it is still stuck to her and everything seems hopeless to her.
Hawthorne wants the reader to understand that Hester is desperate right now and feels as if she will never escape sin because it is all around her. He will send you on a roller coaster ride because it will get worse then better, then worse again. All the way to when she loses the scarlet letter and dies.