Setting:
Boston, Ma 1600’s
Puritan Society- Harsh punishing, simple lifestyle, repressiveness.
Plot:
A crowd of people gather around the town prison and watch the door
A rose bush grows next to the prison door.
The rosebush is described to of been resting on the threshold of the prison door.
Analysis:
Dull colors and dark mood of text describes the repression on simpleness of puritan society iron spikes on door signifying its treachery and also the strictness of puritan society cemetery signifies the lack of perfection of the Puritan society, additional themes of death and despair
The author emphasizes the need for the settlement to have a prison and graveyard. This symbolizes the imperfections in the “perfect” Puritan …show more content…
On the scaffold she has flashbacks to moments of her life, she self reflects on the things of her past.
Women in the crowd talk about Hester and her “lenient” punishment.(pg 44)
Hester walked out of prison with child covering her letter
Her letter is ornate and beautiful
She has a vision from her past about a old man stricken in years with one shoulder higher than the other one
Analysis:
Physical description of the puritan woman having masculine features (93)
Physical description of Hester Prynne (46), she has beauty, feminine traits, the rosebush in front of the prison
Punishment is mocking and cruel harassing the sinner and not caring for her.
People watch Hester’s punishment, because in Puritan society religion and law were identical
Hester has her ornate letter symbolizing her stray from the Puritan tradition, the rose bush theme.
Reverend Master Dimmesdale acts as her godly pastor
Papist..may have seen an image of divine maternity, acting as an allusion to …show more content…
Master Brackett is the jailer for Hester and allows the physician in.
Plot:
Hester returns to the town prison and the baby begins to have some sort of fit
Roger Chillingworth enters as a doctor/physician and offers to give some kind of medicine.
Hester does not trust the man and refuses his medication
Hester has a strange familiar feeling about Roger Chillingworth
Roger later reveals himself as her husband and Hester begans to self reflect oncemore
Analysis:
Hester is doubtful of Chillingworth, because she knows who he really is
Roger then later forgives Hester for her transgressions, because he knows of his ugly deformities
However, his forgiveness comes with a price, the name of the man who fathered Hester’s child
Again Hester trying to protect the man from Chillingworth, keeps his name secret
Chapter 5: Hester at Her Needle
Plot:
After serving her sentence, Hester is released from prison and sent into the world
Instead of leaving the state, she stays and decides to live away from the town to avoid ridicule
She occupies a small job as a seamstress hense the title of the chapter, Hester as Her