Group TWO: Chapters 1-7

9/3/2010

1. Describe the attitudes of the Puritan society toward Hester Prynne and Pearl. What were your reactions as you were reading this? Use text examples and page numbers to provide insight.

2.What do you feel is the importance of chapter 5? Why does Hawthorne go into such detail about Hester's needlework? Use text examples and page numbers to provide insights.

3. Explain any character traits you have seen already concerning YOUR character you are to analyze. Use text and page numbers to provide insight. Please respond to others' analysis with thoughts of your own. Add any impressions you have of the characters mentioned.

29 Comments

Alivia Cutts

2/11/2011 09:42:03 am

Question 1
The Puritan's attitude towards Hester and Pearl is harsh. On page 34 a woman makes the comment saying,"Goodwives, I'll tell you ye a piece of my mind. It would be greatly for the public behoof, if we women, being of mature age and church-members in good repute, should have the handling of such a malefactresses as their Hester Prynne. What think ye, gossips? If the hussy stood up for judgement before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I throw not!" I felt this women was very unrelenting with her judgement when Puritan's said that jugement was a sin.

Alivia Cutts

2/11/2011 09:46:44 am

The importance of chapter 5 is to give the reader a notice of what is coming ahead in other chapters. The needlework is what makes her come in contact with the others in the community. I believe Hawthorne's reason for going into detail is to tell how much it may have not been needed, it was such fine handwork, everyone wanted it. Page 54 gives an example of his intricate details about her needlework.

Carly VanLandingham

2/13/2011 05:59:49 am

Question 1
The Puritans were very relentless and unforgiving towards Hester and Pearl. In my opinion the townspeople were overly harsh towards Hester. I don’t know exactly how the Puritan society worked, so perhaps these behaviors were completely acceptable. On pages 34-35, when speaking about Hester a woman said, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there no law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray!” To me this is extremely harsh

Carly VanLandingham

2/13/2011 06:25:27 am

Question 2
The significance of chapter 5 was to show that even though the townspeople were very abrasive towards Hester and didn’t want to include her in their society, they wanted luxurious clothing. Hester possessed the talent to design beautiful and creative details to incorporate into the clothing of the Puritans. This chapter also explains that Hester felt her needle work was the only thing that would connect her to the society that she would never truly be apart of again. On page 56 it says, “In this manner, Hester Prynne came to have a part to perform in the world. With her native energy of character, and rare capacity, it could not entirely cast her off although it has set a mark upon her, more intolerable to a woman’s heart that that which branded the brow of Cain. In all her intercourse with society, however, there was nothing that make her feel if she belonged to it.”

Larissa Fogle

2/13/2011 08:46:07 am

Question 1:
The Puritan society acted very harsh toward Hester and baby Pearl, especially the women of the town. On page 35, one woman mentions Hester should be put to death for her punishment, and on page 34 another woman says she should have the "A" branded on her forehead instead of her clothes. I feel bad for Pearl because she's being ridiculed for her mother's actions, when she shouldn't be held accountable for any of it since she wasn't even alive. I believe Hester should be punished for her sins because that's how society was back then, but instead of being alone (or with Pearl)she should be punished a long side of the father.

Larissa Fogle

2/13/2011 09:01:18 am

Question 2:
The importance of chapter 5 is to let the reader know what Hester does to express herself and how passionate she is for needlework (page 55-56; “..it might have been a mode of expressing, and therefore soothing, the passion of her life.”). Hawthorne goes into great detail about the needlework to describe Hester’s talent and to explain how the town admires her work.

Larissa Fogle

2/13/2011 09:02:37 am

Reply to Alivia, Question 1:
I agree with you when you said you felt the woman was unrelenting with her judgment because Puritan‘s do view judgment as a sin; it’s a town full of hypocrites.

Alivia Cutts

2/15/2011 02:10:55 am

Question 3
Pearl is described by her mother as a very energetic child that is as beautiful as a pearl that was born from sin. Page 59 gives the example her mother describes he from,"By its perfect shape, its vigor, and its natural dexterityin the use of all its untied limbs, the infant was worthy to have been brought forth in Eden: worthy to have been left there to be the plaything of the angels after the world's first parents were driven out. The child had a native grace which does not invariably co-existwith faultless beauty; its attire, however simple, always impressed the beholder as if it were the very garb that precisely became it best...""...Her mother, with a morbid purpose that may be better understood hereafter, had bought the richest tissues that could be procured,and allowed her imaginative faculty its full play in the arrangement and decoration of the dresses which the child wore before the public eye."

Alivia Cutts

2/15/2011 02:15:16 am

Reply to Carly, Question 1
I agree with the statement that they are very harsh. If you thought of today's society to their's, the opinion's of culture is difintely an affect. The women of the community were very cruel in there behavior, but i do beleive that they complete hypocritacle, both in judgement but as seeing life from the other perspective.

Alivia

2/15/2011 02:17:16 am

Reply to Larissa, Question 2
I believe her needlework was all that she had when she was left alone. I agree that it was a passion, as though it were a hobby. I didn't see it that way, but do after reading your answer.

Carly VanLandingham

2/15/2011 05:06:22 am

Reply to Larissa Question 1
I agree with you when you said that it was awful that Pearl was being punished for something that she had no control over. In my opinion she shouldn't be judged for something her mother did.

Carly VanLandingham

2/15/2011 05:09:41 am

Reply to Alivia Question 2
As I was reading Chapter 5 I didn't see it as foreshadowing for what may happen later on in the book, but after reading your post I went back and read it again and I totally see foreshadowing all over the place.

Alivia

2/15/2011 05:31:23 am

Reply to Carly, question 2
I most definitely understand what you are talking about when you're talking about her needlework. She was very talented in her work, though the Puritan's did not want to involve her in their life's. They thought that they would be harmed or induced into her sins she had committed.

Ray Edwards

2/15/2011 08:20:13 am

Question 1
The attitude of the Puritan's society torward Hester and Pearl was very judgemental, since they strongly looked down upon those who sinned to this measure. On pg 35 a women says, "This women has brought shame upon us all ,and ought to die." The Puritan people ridicule Pearl since she came from sin, but what they are forgetting is everyone supposably came from sin. The people contradict thier beliefs. According to the Puritan beliefs, I think she should be out-casted. But to me it was an understandable mistake.

Ray Edwards

2/15/2011 08:36:57 am

Question 2
The importance of chapter 5 is to show that even though Hester was out-casted she still had a connection to the town. This being all of the burial shrouds, christening gowns, and officials’ robes that she embroidered. Hawthorne goes into such detail about Hester's needlework because this is the only thing, besides Pearl; that brings meaning to her life. On pg 55 it says, "Hester really filled a gap which must otherwise remained vacant", talking about her needlework.

Ray Edwards

2/15/2011 08:54:23 am

Question 3
The character traits that i have noticed about Roger Chillingsworth are that he is untrustworthy considering he didn't fufill his promise to Hester about following her to America. Also he is very sneaky by the way he doesn't let anyone know his identity and how he plots revenge.

Larissa Fogle

2/15/2011 08:59:30 am

Question 3:
Mr. Dimmesdale was a minister of the town that many people admired. Hawthorne tells the reader how Dimmesdale kept to himself and only got himself noticed when he needed to be; also, many people of the town looked up to him (Page 44 “..So far as his duties would permit, he trod in the shadowy by-paths, and thus kept himself simple and childlike, coming forth, when occasion was, as many people said, affected them like the speech of an angel”). The speech he gives Hester (page 45), on telling who the father is, should be told over to him because he should listen to his words and come forward with his secret. Him being a minister, he is too ashamed of what was done to say anything(page 34).

Ray Edwards

2/15/2011 09:00:32 am

Reply to Alivia, Question 2
I agree with what you said about, thats the way she keeps intouch with the community, but when you say that the reason why Hawthorne goes into detail, is because its not needed, i think thats completely opposite because her needlework seems very important at the time.

Larissa Fogle

2/15/2011 09:06:30 am

Reply to Ray, Question 3:
I agree with you about Chillingsworth being sneaky. He's lying to the town about who he actully is and he made Hester take an oath not to tell who he is; it makes me think he has more to hide.

Taylor Thornlow

2/15/2011 09:13:29 am

Question 1:

The attitudes towards Hester and Pearl are judgemental and hipocritcal to me. Puritans are very religious and to sit there and talk about someone is not what God would want. They judge Hester based on her actions and judge Pearl based on Hester's actions also, I think you shouldn't dislike someone based on someone elses actions, they are their own person. Sure, Hester committed adultry and I get that it is wrong but they should also be open to forgiving her and moving past the situation.
As I was reading this it just made me want to jump in the book and tell all of the Puritan citizens that they were being EXTREMELY judgemental and wrong. Some of the female spectators wanted the WORST possible punishment for Hester. They talked about her so much because they thought she was proud of her actions when actually she was scared and ashamed. On page 36 they said..
" but did ever a women, before this brazen hussy, contrive such a way of showing it! Why, gossips, what is it but to laugh in the faces of our godly magistrates, and make a pride out of what they, worthy gentlemen, meant for a punishment?"

Taylor Thornlow

2/15/2011 09:24:46 am

Question 2:

The importance of chapter 5 is that it is describing how passionate Hester is about her needlework and how good it is. I also believe it shows that she was lonely and had nothing else to show for it than to do needlework.
On page 54 it says..
" Lonely as was Hester's situation, and without a friend on earth who dared to show himself, she, however, incurred no risk of want. .."
I think Hawthorne went into great detail because he knew everyone admired her needlework and how beautiful it was. He wanted to tell the reader what hard work she put into her work and how everyone wanted it.

Larissa Fogle

2/15/2011 09:26:27 am

Reply to Carly, Question 2:
I agree with you completely on the importance of chapter 5. Hester used her needlework to feel somewhat connected to the town that wanted nothing to do her. The only thing they wanted from her was the designing for the clothing they wore.

Taylor Thornlow

2/15/2011 09:27:25 am

Question 3:

I believe Chillingsworth is sneaky and going to cause problems later in the book. He lied about who he was and came across as a stranger then made Hester take an oath not to tell anyone who he was. He broke his promise to Hester so that also shows he cannot be trusted, I just think he will create problems not only for himself but Hester, the baby, and the townspeople.

Taylor Thornlow

2/15/2011 09:29:10 am

Reply to Larissa, Question 1:

I completely agree with you about how they treated Hester and the baby. The women were very harsh in the way they said they would punish Hester and treat Pearl. They show no signs of ever forgiving Hester and I believe that is wrong of them.

Taylor Thornlow

2/15/2011 09:31:25 am

Reply to Ray, Question 3:

I agree, I've seen the same traits in Roger Chillingsworth. He made Hester take an oath not to reveal his real identity and that just comes across as strange to me. He lied to her so I can see where you think he is untrustworthy!

Taylor Thornlow

2/15/2011 09:34:16 am

Reply to Carly, Question 2:

I like what your saying, I totally agree that chapter 5 is showing her beautiful design and hardwork. I also have noticed while reading, how the Puritan society does not want Hester or baby Pearl in their community. They all judge BOTH of them harshly and needlework is the only way Hester knows how she can possibly connect with them because they all notice how amazing her work is.

Carly VanLandingham

2/15/2011 11:52:26 am

Question 3
Dimmesdale's character has been portrayed as someone who is trustworthy and who a lot of the people in the town look up to. On page 45 it talks about how the townspeople view him and about how he interacts with his community.

Carly VanLandingham

2/15/2011 11:55:52 am

Reply to Taylor Question 1
I agree wtih you when you said the Puritain were being hypocritical. It wasn't not like they were all perfect people who had done no wrong. They had made mistakes to but they were judging Hester so harshly for her mistake. It was also a sin to gossip and they were more than willing to gossip about Hester.

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Group TWO: Chapters 1-7

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