Scarlet Letter Notes 6a
Chapter 13: Another View of Hester
New symbol of the A
A = Angel
A = Able
A = Adultery
111 – “It is our Hester—the town’s own Hester—who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!” The new view
111 - In a sense, Hester heals the Puritans. “Their sour and rigid wrinkles . . . might grow to be an expression of almost benevolence”
112 - The scarlet letter “imparted to the wearer a kind of sacredness”
112 – Hester’s strength has allowed her to survive, not much tenderness left, the shell of a woman. Some hope that love could restore her
113 – Her seclusion has made her an independent thinker “The worlds law was no law for her mind”
114 – “The scarlet letter had not done its office” it has made her an independent thinker and restored her purity, it did not just punish her. Freedom of thought (“freedom of speculation”) is deadlier crime than adultery to Puritans
115 – Hester has climbed just as Chillingworth has fallen morally (he is lower than she for her sin now for his sin of cruel revenge)
Chapter 14: Hester and the Physician
116 - They debate whether Hester may remove the A
“It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off this badge . . . Were I worth to be quit of it, it would fall away of its own nature, or be transformed into something that should speak a different purport.”
116 – Chillingworth’s transformation into a fiend
blackness, smouldering, flame “glare of red light out of his eyes” “transforming himself into a devil” 117 “lurid fire”
118 – “there was fiend at his elbow! A mortal man, with once a human heart, has become a fiend for especial torment”
“I have already told thee what I am! A fiend! Who made me so?”
117 – why does she want to be true to Dimmesdale? How will she?
“for, having cast off all duty towards other human beings, there remained a duty towards him . . . I was betraying it” “I have surely acted a false part by the only man to whom the power was left me to be true!”
119 – what does she ask Chillingworth to do? What he needs to do, forgive Dimmesdale and Hester. Only way to heal himself, but he cannot. He’s totally corrupted by his passion for revenge, blackened “Let the black flower blossom”