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How Is Hester Prynne Selfish

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In the book “The Scarlet Letter” we find out that Hester committed adultery and ended up having a child who is Pearl. Hester Prynne is the main character and she is beautiful, her beauty barely compares to her strength of character. Even when she is punished for her crime of adultery and publicly humiliated by being forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her chest, Hester does not break. She remains exactly who she is strong, kind, proud, but also humble. With all of this going on people were trying to take Pearl from her. With this argument, you can argue with both sides. Which is to let Hester keep Pearl or to let Pearl be taking away from Hester. You could argue that because Hester committed a sin that she is a bad mom or that Pearl just …show more content…

She says that she should be able to keep Pearl because God gave Pearl to Hester, and because Hester can teach. She wants Pearl learn from the mistakes that Hester made, regarding sin and adultery. She can let Pearl grown up and show her that she doesn’t want to be in her shoes when she gets older. Nobody can raise Pearl like Hester can be Hester is Pearl’s mother. Both Hester’s logical and emotional arguments are equally as effective, because it makes sense that Hester should keep the child because God gave her to Hester. It also makes sense that Hester should keep the child because Hester’s past experiences can help grow and mold Pearl, and Hester can teach Pearl to make the mistakes she did. Hester also uses emotional diction order to help persuade Bellingham. Hester says that Pearl is her happiness along with her torture and that Hester will die before Pearl is taken from her. This shows Hester’s passion and love for her daughter Pearl, and how she will do whatever it takes to have custody of Pearl. Hester’s argument does not convince her to reveal that Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father, because Hester doesn’t want to rat Dimmesdale out and Dimmesdale isn’t courageous enough to admit it. This helps elaborate on how strong and independent Hester is, and how cowardly, in a way, Dimmesdale

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