The narrator works at the Salem Custom-House and spends much of his time leafing through documents and ephemera in the big empty rooms. This repressed community had a vivid imagination, fueled by fear of the supernatural and a fundamentalist religious zeal. While there, the governor explains to Hester that authorities have been discussing whether she is a fit mother for Pearl. After meeting with Roger Chillingworth to talk in the woods, Hester reunites with Pearl, who has waited for Hester in another part of the forest.
In this scene, Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the forest and acknowledge their love for one another, both past and present. They feel joy and hope. The freedom is exhilarating but short-lived. Ace your assignments with our guide to The Scarlet Letter! In the array of funerals, too,—whether for the apparel of the dead body, or to typify, by manifold emblematic devices of sable cloth and snowy lawn, the sorrow of the survivors,—there was a frequent and characteristic demand for such labor as Hester Prynne could supply.
Baby-linen—for babies then wore robes of state—afforded still another possibility of toil and emolument. Though Hester was lonely, without a friend on Earth who dared visit her, she was never in danger of going hungry. She possessed a skill that allowed her to feed her growing baby and herself, though there was less demand in New England for her work than there might have been in her homeland.
Her profession was—and still is—almost the only art available to women: needlework. The intricately embroidered letter that Hester wore on her breast was an example of her delicate and imaginative skill. Ladies at court would have gladly added such a testament of human creativity to their gold and silver garments. The drab simplicity that often characterized Puritan clothing might have reduced the demand for such fine handiwork, but even here the taste of the age produced a desire for elaborate decoration on some occasions.
Our Puritan ancestors, who had done away with more essential luxuries, had trouble resisting. Public ceremonies, such as the ordination of ministers or the installation of magistrates, were customarily characterized by a serious yet deliberate magnificence.
Ruffled collars, delicately made armbands, and gorgeously embroidered gloves were viewed as necessary accessories when men assumed positions of power. These luxuries were permitted to those with status or wealth, even though strict laws kept such extravagances from lesser folk. The dead body had to be dressed, and the sorrow of the mourners had to be demonstrated through emblems of black cloth and white embroidery.
Baby clothes—since babies were dressed like royalty back then—offered another opportunity for Hester to ply her trade. Previous Chapter Next Chapter Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title.
Are you sure you want to remove bookConfirmation and any corresponding bookmarks? My Preferences My Reading List. The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne. Although Pearl is one of the physical symbols of Hester's sin the other is the scarlet A , she is much more than that.
She is the product of an act of love — socially forbidden love as it may have been — but love still. This is why Pearl, as we later learn, is not amenable to social rules. She was conceived in an act that was intolerable in the Puritan code and society.
In addition to Hester and Pearl's appearance, we get our first glimpse of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth, the novel's other two main characters. Although the irony of Dimmesdale's relationship to Hester is not yet apparent, his grief over his parishioner Hester is commented on by one of the women assembled near the prison who notes that Dimmesdale "takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation.
He is the "misshapen scholar" who is Hester's legal husband. Chapter 2 also contains a description of the Puritan society and reveals Hawthorne's critical attitude toward it. The smugly pious attitude of the women assembled in front of the prison who condemn Hester is frightening — especially when we hear them suggest that Hester should be scalded with a hot iron applied to her forehead to mark her as a "hussy," an immoral woman.
Although this scene vividly dramatizes what Hawthorne found objectionable about early American Puritanism, he avoids over-generalizing here by including the comments of a good-hearted young wife to show that not all Puritan women were as bitter and pugnaciously pious as these "gossips.
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