Happy Thanksgiving post! The Scarlet Letter chapaters 16-20

Well I have not completely finished the book yet (I am almost there!) I have really enjoyed most of this section of the novel. The first thing that grasped my attention on this section was how much Hester now hates Roger. She also quotes, 'He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong then I did him!' (Hawthrone 173) Is this true though? I don't know if I agree with her one hundred percent that he was the one who was more of the wrongdoer. I think that they both are equally to blame for everything that happened between them.
A few pages after this happened, Pearl begins to question why her mother wears the scarlet 'A' on her bosom and why the minister holds his hand on his heart. She keeps begging her mother to tell her, but the only responce Pearl gets is 'Silly Pearl, I wear it for the sake of its gold thread.' (Hawthorne 177) Personally, I just wish that Hester would confess to Pearl and tell her why she wears it. They have been though so much together, and even though she is little-she should tell her all about her Scarlet letter plus who her father is!
When I wrote my last post , I was confused to whom the 'Black Man' they were dicussing was. It turns out to be that he is a man who haunts the forest and has people write their names with their own blood! Once again, Hester lies about her 'A' when she says 'Once in my life I met the Black Man!, This Scarlet Letter is his Mark! (Hawthorne 182)
Chapter 17 was a very intense chapter! I was happy to see that both the minister and Hester confessed things to each other. The minister told Hester that he has not found peace these past seven years. I know Hester has had more to deal with than the minister. However, I still wish that he had found peace and that he didn't have to suffer in his mind all this time. Hester said an even bigger thing to the minister! 'That old man!-the physician!-he whom they call Roger Chillingworth!-he was my husband!' (Hawthorne 190) I thought that Hester was going to keep this inside of her for the whole book. I am glad that she found the courage to speak this towards him (even though he already knew about it).
It's fascinating that after all the problems the minister and Hester had that they are coming together to  fight through their differences. 'She undid the the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and,taking it off her bosom,threw it to a distance among the withered leaves. (Hawthorne 198) I was in utter shock when she chose to try to forget about the 'A' ever being on her! This only lasted for a short period though. Pearl never saw her mother like this, so it made her turn insane! Without her mom having the letter on, she wouldn't become herself again. I understand why she had to put the letter back on. The things that happened from your past will always be a part whether they were good or bad. I feel like Hester needs to keep the 'A' on forever!

Since I'm absent I might as well start my blog on : The Scarlet Letter pages 114-169!

There were so many things in the section of the book that were important! However, I found chapter 9 to be quite boring to read. There were a few good key points in this chapter. Roger has now taken the role of a doctor and is now called a 'leech'. When I looked up more about this term, I found it quite interesting to see that it meant that doctors' used to drain blood from their patients! Roger is now the doctor of Dimmesdale because he has gotten very ill. Since Dimmesdale did not want to marry anyone younger then him, Roger is now living with him and is taking full care of him! 'As not only the disease interested the physician, but he was strongly moved to look into the character and qualities of the patient, these two men, so different in age, came gradually to spend much time together.'(Hawthorne 119) I found it a little weird that Roger spent TOO much time with his patient.  The part that grasped my attention a lot was that the town's people are now starting to think of Roger as the devil! 'Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale,in all ages of Christian world, was haunted either by Satan himself in the guise of old Roger Chillingsworth.'(Hawthorne 124)

Chatter 10 of the novel took me sometime to understand. What I got from it was that the Roger and Dimmesdale were having a conversation about Hester by Roger's plants. They hear Pearl outside and she says ' Come away, Mother!, Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! (Hawthorne 131) Who is this black man Pearl is talking about? One last thing that caught my eye in this chapter was that Chillingsworth says Hester does not live with her sins buried because she openly shows her 'A'!

I could not believe a minster would commit adultery! At first I was kind of angry with the minister because he had Hester take all the blame all these years.  People hated her for so many years and since no one wold have expected the minister, he never say anything! I am happy now that at least now he is sharing to the town what he has done. 'Come up hither once again, and we will stand all three together!' (Hawthorne 149)  It is great that he finally went forward to the town and stood on the scaffold with the two of them. People still do not believe though that he did it! Someone said he dropped his glove but, ‘A pure hand needs no glove to cover it! (Hawthorne 155) I am curious to see when the people will believe he did it.   One of my favorite chapters so far was chapter 11. This was the first time that Hester and Roger have had a conversation in years! Throughout the whole novel, I kept waiting for Roger to seek revenge on Hester. Now, we know that the minister has no illness, and this secret is just eating him alive! 'I must reveal the secret.' (Hawthorne 169) I am so proud of Hester that she finally wants to stand up and show who the minister really is. 

The Scarlet letter pages 75-112 :)

As I began to read chapter 5, I was very surprised by some of the things going on. First, There was the questioning of how Hester was going to act after she got out of prison. 'But now, with this unattended walk from her prison door began the daily custom,and she must either sustain and carry it forward by the ordinary resources, or sink beneath'. (Hawthorne 75) I hope in the upcoming chapters that Hester will be able to go and on with her life and never sink beneath and think about her pain. Another thing that brought attention to me was that Hester did not flee from Boston after she was released out of prison. If I was in Hester's situation, I would want to get out right away! I wouldn't want to see the constant stares of people causing me pain because of my scarlet letter. To my surprise, Hester choose to live in a abandoned cottage in Boston with her daughter Pearl.
As a women myself, I truly feel bad for how Hester and her Pearl are still being treated months after the incident! 'Children, too young to comprehend wherefore this women should be shut out from the sphere of human charaities discerning the scarlet letter on her breast would scamper off with a strange, contagious fear.'(Hawthorne 78)Also, poor Pearl an Hester get mud thrown at them because I think parents did not want their children to be near her and her mother. 'When strangers looked curiously at the scarlet letter-and none ever failed to do so-they branded it into Hester's soul.'(Hawthorne 83) I feel so terribly for her that she always had to walk around hiding the scarlet letter because she felt so much shame while it showed her sins.
I really liked the way they talk in the novel on why Hester choose to name her daughter Pearl. 'But she named the infant 'Pearl', as being of great prize-purchased with all she had-she mother's only treasure! I find it sad that Pearl is the only thing she has to depend on in life but very sweet that she cares for her so much.One question that I have from reading this section of the story was why did she pick needle work to help her get over her sins?
Going into chapter 7, Hester needs to visit the governor to see if it is true that she might get her daughter taken away from her because she is a 'demon' child. Something I found interesting was that during this visit Hester and Pearl went into the garden and saw some rosebushes. 'Pearl,seeing the rosebushes,began to cry, for a red rose, and would not be pacified.'(Hawthorne 103) Why did she begin to cry? This part was a little confusing to me. In this part of the story, I could not believe that the governor thought that Pearl came from the Devil, while Hester said her baby was brought to her from God! And during this part I  kept  reading carefully about the kind relationship Pearl and the minister had.

The Scarlet Letter pages pages 44-71

At the beginning of the novel, it begins to set the scene with regards to the relatively new colony. 'Have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison' (Hawthorne 45) This part meant to me that this new town isn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows, but there will be a lot of sin and crimes. The area near the jail cell looks very angry, and the jail seems to hold very dangerous people. The only slight thing of happiness here is the rose bush. I am happy that the rose bush is present because it shows me that there is a glimmer of hope for this dreadful town.
What brought shock upon me was to see that Hester Prynne has committed adultery and people now want her to be hurt and even killed! Why are the women not sticking up for Hester? The way they are treating her is deplorable! A female in the book quoted 'This women has brought shame upon as all, and ought to die.' (Hawthorne 49) In my eyes, I feel that women of today would want to stick up for each other unlike back when this story took place. Feminism has greatly grown in the last few decades, and if this story took place today things would be completely different. I feel that the women are jealous of all the attention she is getting because 'she is tall with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale.' (Hawthorne 51)
I find it crazy that she now has a scarlet letter embroidered onto her shirt. This is a symbol that will show that they are trying to torture Hester with humiliation by leaving this 'A' on her forever.  Also, at the event where she was shown on the scaffold for hours; I was very curious to whom the man watching her might have been. It first occurred to me that it might be the father of the new baby, but no it was her husband! A quote to go into this more that he knew her more personally would be 'His face darkened with some powerful emotion, which, nevertheless, he so instantaneously controlled by an effort of his will.' ( Hawthorne 58) I wonder if since this is her husband, what outcomes will occur with him and Hester by the end of the novel?
One last thing I want to go into was when Hester was in jail , a physician approached her.  This man we can conclude is actually her husband. At first, he wanted her to die, but then he has chosen to let her live! 'Live, therefore, and bear about thy doom with thee, in the eyes of man and women-in the eyes of him whom thou didst call thy husband.' (Hawthorne 71) He is trying to tell her that she will now only live in despair with these people and never really see any happiness with them again!