soooo, i'm a bit confused again :(
Hester has the chance to leave the town and kind of start a new life, but she doesn't do that. She decides to stay where everyone knows how sinful she is...I find that kinda stupid, but she says something about purging her soul...h/o let me get my book -.-.......here:
"Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom."
Yeah, so, she's like punishing herself by staying because she thinks she can redeem herself or something that way...
Anyways, she stays in this isolated cottage on the "outskirts of town". The cottage is empty because the land around it is too sterile to grow anything, so I find it kind of funny that Hester's going to live there ^_^
She also, of course, has to make money somehow, so she sews. And the clothing that she makes is worn by everyone except brides (they won't wear it because of Hester's whole adultery crime...), and all of it is very well-made and beautiful (just like her scarlet "A").
But, other than people buying and wearing her work, Hester is still an outcast and is constantly used an example of sinfulness.
Well, I'm going to go read some more because the next chapter is all about her daughter, which seems like it will be really interesting :)
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1 comment:
Great entries, sleepy--
Two things to clarify confusion: 1. this is set in Puritan times (purging of soul is THE goal, so that would be a reason for HP to stay), and 2. Hawthorne is descended from good Puritan stock (great (great?) grandpa was a judge in the Salem witch trials) AND he was an Anti-transcendentalist, so he wrestled with the degree of evil that lies within every human even as he hoped for evidence that we're not all doomed.
Good reading!
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