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Mistress Hibbins In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

656 Words3 Pages

Title “ The Market-place” and “The Recognition” BEFORE READING I inferred that it’s not actually about a market-place, or it doesn’t takes place in market or anything but it is too crowded therefore the author might call it a marketplace. AFTER READING -Hester is publicly ashamed in the marketplace for committing adultery. -Someone recognizes Hester while she is on the platform. Vocabulary - “Amongst any other population, or at a later period in the history of New England, the grim rigidity that petrified the bearded physiognomies of these good people would have augured some awful business in hand.” (Hawthorne 75) - “This personage prefigured and represented in his aspect the whole dismal severity of the Puritanic code of law, which it was his business to administer …show more content…

Supernatural - “It might be, too, that a witch, like old Mistress Hibbins, the bitter tempered widow of the magistrate, was to die upon the gallows.” (Hawthorne 76) - “It had the affect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.” (Hawthorne 82) - Mistress Hibbins is called a witch, which absolutely shows an example of supernatural. But we are not sure if Hawthorne believes she is a witch; it’s more likely that he is talking with the tongue of Puritan community. - The Scarlet Letter had an affect of a spell, which means that the spell took her out of the ordinary life and turned it into a supernatural life. Character The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam; and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes. Hester is physically described by Hawthorne as a rusty gold, to show actually how beautiful she is but what has Puritan turned her

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One woman criticizing Hester is called “the ugliest and most pitiless” (49) compared to the rest of the townspeople who are called “self-constituted judges” (49). Hawthorne’s physical descriptions of the people allude to how they are in the inside. He uses physiognomy to show how each person truly is. When he says that Hester is beautiful, he is saying that she is a good person with a good heart. This could mean that Hawthorne relates to Hester and her letter, and believes that even though the letter signifies her sin, which was wrong, it does not indicate the type of person she is on the

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Sprinkled Snickerdoodlepastasauce Scarlet Letter Essay Throughout the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne shifts from a disapproving tone in the beginning of the passage to a more hopeful tone near the end of the excerpt. During the initial parts of the text, Hawthorne utilizes Anglo-Saxon diction in order to convey a disapproving tone towards the Puritan Society. The author begins the text by immediately portraying the townsfolk as wearing “sad colored garments,” and “some [women] wearing hoods.”

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Instead of displaying the scarlet letter ‘A’ as a detriment, Hester parades it with her own style, embroidering it and making it her own. Comparably, Gladwell narrates the idea that, “power can come in other forms as well— in breaking rules, in substituting speed and surprise for strength” (Gladwell 13). Both novels elucidate that not all extraordinary people become noteworthy in conventional ways; toying with society’s barriers in the manner that Hester did makes her a hero amongst the women of New

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This shows that Hester does not necessarily need to worry about what the people of Boston think of her or how she needs to redeem herself in order to fit back into the society. When Hawthorne says “The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end!” he is showing how there is no way for Hester to change her society. She should have love and joy, but instead she is faced with guilt, which leads to her downfall. Along with this, Hawthorne demonstrates how the people of Boston are actually the sinners while Hester and Dimmesdale represent the Angel and the Saint of the city.

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The existence of the supernatural has pervaded and consumed the minds of those who ponder of things beyond our control . Many have been frightened by the moments of loneliness in your own home and by the hearing of perceived paranormal noises . The book The Scarlet Letter has some series or suspicions of supernatural occasions or individuals. In the book we come across some very intriguing characters. Pearl is a young girl who is very wise for her age, Mistress Hibbins, and the actual scarlet letter itself.

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