This book is amazing. I
am going to put all my annotations and what I had thought as I read this
chapter. The characteristics of the people are awful. They believe that “religion
and laws were identical…” Any small act that is unapproved is punished. People
anticipate death penalty for almost all crimes. The sign, which was supposed to
put her to shame, was “artistically done.” The embroidery was so great that the
greatness of it’s’ look is not approved by the maximum tolerated greatness of
the colony. The puritans see her as a sinful woman. However, Hawthorne had
explained how a papist, a catholic, might see Hester as a symbolic Virgin Mary.
When Hester was facing all the people, on the inside she wants to flee away but
she stood up and faced the crowd gathering all the remains of her dignity. Hester
had wished that all of the things were a dream and even hallucinated her
parents and lover, but reality hits her.
"On the breast of her gown, in fine red
cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of
gold-thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done, and with so
much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of
a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a
splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was
allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony."
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