Hester Prynne In 'The Scarlet Letter'

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Hester Prynne is first introduced as a tall, dark haired woman with perfect elegance. Described as beautiful and ladylike, Hester appears more graceful than ever. I think Hester seems scared and apprehensive, but also willing to take responsibility for her actions and do anything necessary to protect her baby. The fact that Hester’s scarlet letter is so beautifully designed suggests that she accepts her consequences and this symbol as a part of herself and her new life moving forward. Hawthorne notes that Hester and her babe are similar due to the fact that they are both outcasts from society. In contrast, however, Hester has sinned and Pearl is pure, but now they are both paying the consequences of Hester’s adultery. Overall, the response

Hester’s life as she once knew it is gone, and her only consolation is Pearl. Hester loves her daughter more than anything, but worries that because she had sinned, that the result would not be good. Hester sees many of her negative characteristics in Pearl, such as defiance and moodiness. Pearl is constantly causing mischief, causing Hester to wonder whether or not Pearl was a human child. Pearl knew she was an outcast and was treated as so by the other children and as an “imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants” (53). Pearl watched the other children, but never tried to make friends. Because they could sense that something was off about her, children would occasionally gather around Pearl. In response, she would throw stones and scream at them, much to the discomfort of her mother, due to the fact that her exclamations sounded like a witch’s anathemas. To help with her loneliness, Pearl creates puppets out of random things such as stick, rags, or flowers. Black and aged pine trees served as Puritan elders and the ugliest weeds were their children. This shows Pearl’s attitude towards those who had outcasted her and her mother and also demonstrates her wild imagination, that she lives her in own little world. In chapter seven, the hall is described as old fashioned and prim, with rows of portraits representing the

They “tease” Pearl by calling her a “little bird of scarlet plumage” (62), and a demon child. Pearl is drawn to Dimmesdale the most, even pressing her hand to her cheek. Coming to Hester and Pearl’s defense, Dimmesdale persuades Bellingham and Wilson to let Hester keep her child. Dimmesdale argues, “It was meant for a blessing-for the one blessing of her life! It was meant, doubtless, as the mother herself hath told us, for a retribution, too; a torture to be felt at many an unthoughtof; a pang, a sting, an ever-recurring agony, in the midst of a troubled joy” (65). Prompted more by the fact that keeping Pearl is just as much of a curse as it is a blessing, the men allow Hester and Pearl to stay together. As she leaves the hall, Hester is approached by Bellingham’s sister, Mistress Hibins, and asked to come to a witches meeting. Hester responds by saying she has to go home to take care of Pearl, but if Pearl had been taken away from her, she gladly would’ve come and Hawthorne notes that “the child had saved her from Satan’s snare” (66). Roger Chillingworth has kept his past a secret, even going by a new name. He becomes a much needed doctor, and since there was not very much good medical care, is widely accepted by the people of the town. Because of Dimmesdale’s diminishing health and Chillingworth’s interest in both his disease and personal life,