The Scarlet Letter (Chapter 4-7)

       Chapter 4: In the beginning of chapter 4 when Hester goes back into the prison Master Brackett had sent a physician to talk to Hester. At first when Hester came back to the prison I thought she would finally get some sort of relief since she's finally alone and there's no people staring at her and making bad comments at her. But to make matters worse the physician is actually her husband, which immediately puts Hester in an awkward position. It's especially awkward because the baby that she is holding is not her husbands child. It even says, after the book introduces the physician as Roger Chillingworth that "for Hester Prynne had immediately become as still as death, although the child continued to moan."(Hawthorne 68) So the quote even explains some of the fear that Hester has at the moment because she is unaware of what he is trying to do at the moment. Chillingworth offers Hester medicine and at first she refuses I think that shows that she lacks some trust in her husband since she thinks that he would try to hurt her. But when Chillingworth explains that the medicine is a potent for good I think it shows that a part of him wants to help her even though she has committed adultery. If this was any other husband they would not even think of trying to help out their wife who is accused of adultery and cheating on them, so this makes me wonder why would Chillingworth help Hester when most husbands would not. As the chapter goes on Chillingworth starts questioning Hester about who she committed adultery with and who the father of the baby is. Hester refuses to mention any names so he continues to say "There are none in this land that know me. Breathe not, to any human soul, that thou didst ever call me husband!" (Hawthorne 73) I think that later on in the story Hester's husband will play a much bigger role in the story and come back at some point as he tries to get some kind of justice and find out who the father of the baby is.

         Chapter 5: In chapter 5 I think it is good for Hester to live in that small cottage because it is pretty isolated and away from the townspeople who would continue to harass her if she had stayed in a more populated area. "Without a friend on earth who dared to show himself, she, however, incurred even no risk of want." (Hawthorne 78)  When the author says "incurred even no risk of want." its not very straight forward so its kind of hard for me to understand what he is trying to say in that one part of the quote. But anyway I think what the author is trying to say is that no one wanted to see Hester not even her friends but at the same time that did not matter to her because she did not feel like seeing anyone. Basically a lot of the chapter talks about her needlework and about how that's pretty much all she does. After a while she starts to feel lonely and more and more ashamed of the adultery she committed. A lot of the feelings she has she keeps bottled up inside of her so I think eventually at some point she might feel frustrated enough that she reveals the father of the baby.
         Chapter 6: During chapter 6 I like how the author describes Pearl's innocence. So far Pearl is the only character that isn't judgmental of Hester mostly because she is young and does not know what kind of crime Hester committed. I think even as Pearl gets older and becomes wiser she still won't look at her mother any differently since thats the woman who raised her. Once Pearl starts to understand more of her mothers crime she may feel a little disappointed at first but it would be easy for her to look past that. A lot of times Pearl is described as a demon child and is expected to be just as corrupt as her mother but even Hester starts to realize that she is far from that. Pearl is and still can be a good person she just has always had a bad reputation ever since she was born. I started to realize that theres a lot of misconceptions against Pearl and many of them are wrong. I think chapter 6 also describes Pearls personality and that as she gets older and in the later chapters her traits will be much more expressed.
         Chapter 7: In chapter 7 Hester is headed to Governor Bellingham's mansion to give him a pair of gloves that she embroidered but she is also going to find out if the rumors of having Pearl taken away from her are true. If the rumor is true then I feel bad for Hester because she loves Pearl and Pearl is also the only one that doesn't judge her. I think its brave of Hester to be able to go back into town where she knows thats she will be harassed. But I also found interesting and also brave of Pearl was that when the local Puritan children saw the both of them they started to make fun of them and fling mud at them. Pearl immediately ran towards them and shooed/scared them away. When they ran away she quietly went back to her mother and smiled at her I think that part shows a lot of the love she has for her mother and it also shows that she's fearless and not afraid to stand up for herself and for the ones she loves. In the first chapter it mentioned a rosebush and I said that may have some symbolism or foreshadowing of something good in the later chapters. In this chapter the rosebush is mentioned again when Pearl sees rosebushes and started to cry for a red rose. I don't know if there is some kind of symbolism in that part or not but I just thought it was a coincidence.

Scarlet Letter (chapt 1-3)

     Scarlet Letter (chapt 1-3)

              The first chapter is mostly about describing the setting in the story which is the outside of a prison. Outside of the prison there is a crowd of people standing in front of the door waiting for someone to come out. I think the way the scene was described was depressing because even in the first sentence of the chapter it says "A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats,intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice , the door of which was heavily timbered with oak and studded with iron spikes." ( Hawthorne 45). The author describes that people were wearing sad-colored garments which obviously shows that not only is the scene depressing but so are the people. By the end of the chapter the author talks about a rosebush which is outside of the prison. I think the rosebush may be important because it could be a foreshadowing of something that will happen later in the story. The author says "It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow." (Hawthorne 46) The quote supports the fact that the rosebush may have some kind of foreshadow or symbolism.

            In the second chapter Hester Prynne comes out of the prison holding a baby. As she walks down the market place I kind of felt bad for her because people are staring at her and making bad comments about her. The way people reacted to her committing adultery is very different from the way people would react today. So I felt sorry for her that the locals did not mind their own business and made her the center of attention because of her wrongdoing. "Reminiscences, the most trifling and immaterial, passages of infancy and schooldays, sports, childish quarrels, and the little domestic traits of her maiden years, came swarming back upon her..." (Hawthorne 56) As Hester starts to think about her past she seems more relatable and I started to realize she was really just a regular person who happened to make mistake. At the end of the chapter Hester starts to realize her own reality and does not want to believe what is actually happening to her. She is in disbelief of the shame she has after reminiscing about how good her life used to be.

            In the beginning of chapter three while Hester is on the scaffold she sees a man dressed as a Native American and then the author says "When he found the eyes of Hester Prynne fastened on his own, and saw that she appeared to recognize him, he slowly and calmly raised his finger, made a gesture with it in the air and laid it on his lips." (Hawthorne 58) Clearly these two characters know each other, but what I'm curious about is why the man is not revealing who he is and why he is wearing a disguise. From what I read it looks like he is trying to hide any kind of evidence that shows he knows Hester and has a past with her but eventually I think this character will play a big part in the story as it goes on.

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