After seeing Mr. Dimmesdale upon the scaffold, Hester was shocked. His condition had been so reduced from the man she had known before. She could readily infer that a terrible devil had been plotting against Mr. Dimmesdale’s well-being. And thus, due to the link of mutual crime between them, Hester decided that Mr. Dimmesdale had a right to her aid. Much had changed since she had first stood upon the scaffold. Seven years had passed, and she, with her scarlet letter, had long been a familiar sight to the townspeople. It is a virtue of human nature that it loves more readily than it hates. And thus Hester --who never battled with the public, who never took advantage of it, who was always devoted to the town--was no longer treated as an outcast …show more content…
Yet when walking through the town’s streets, Hester never raised her head to receive the people’s greetings. If they approached her, she would only lay her finger on the scarlet letter and pass on silently. While this may have been pride, the public saw it as humility (3). Thus, they were inclined to perceive their former victim more kindly than she wished for, or perhaps, than she deserved. The rulers and the wise and learned men of the community took longer to acknowledge Hester’s good qualities. Nevertheless, as time passed, their rigidness was relaxing into an expression of almost benevolence …show more content…
This was an age of expansion for the human intellect, and Hester imbibed (7) this spirit. This freedom of thought, though common on the other side of the Atlantic, would have been held by the townspeople as a deadlier crime than that stigmatized (8) by the scarlet letter. Her speculations (9) were often bold. It is presumed that if not for the little Pearl, she might have become an Ann Hutchinson of sorts, or a prophetess, sentenced to death for attempting to undermine (10) the foundations of the Puritan