actually
introducesto us in chapter two of . The chapter is titled "The
Marketplace," and that is where everyone has gathered to watch Hester emerge from the
prison and make her shameful walk to the scaffold where she will be the object of scorn for the
entire town to see.
Before Hester ever appears, we learn what the
townspeople, or at least the town's women, think of her. The majority opinion seems to be that
Hester is not being punished severely enough to satisfy them. One wishes she and four of her
other "mature" (older) friends had been the ones to determine her fate, as they would
not have gone as easy on her as they feel the magistrates did. Another thinks Hester should have
had the letter A branded on her forehead rather than simply wearing a scarlet letter, as she can
adorn it or cover it up if she is just wearing it.
The harshest comment of
all is that she should have forfeited her life for the sin she committed. One quiet voice speaks
on Hester's behalf, but the majority want Hester's punishment to be more oppressive and
onerous.
It is against this backdrop that Hawthorne presents Hester Prynne,
and the first thing she does is shrug off the hand of the beadle from her shoulder, "an
action marked with natural dignity and force of character." Before we learn anything more
about her, we learn that she is a strong and independent woman. Hawthorne's view of Hester is a
sharp contrast to how most of the her fellow citizens view her.
Though her
first instinct is to cover the letter embroidered on her breast with the child she is carrying,
"wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another,"
Hester relaxes her hold on the child and walks boldly forth into the hostile crowd.
Though the "A" is spectacularly ornamental,
[t]hose who had before known her, and had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by
a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even startled, to perceive how her beauty shone out,
and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped.
Hawthorne's view of Hester is most revealed in his comparison of
her to the Madonna, to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Though Hester is far from an unsullied virgin,
there is something about Hester holding her child which reminds him of this saintly and sacred
image.
Hester's temperament is strong, and Hawthorne is clearly sympathetic
to the plight of this strong woman in the midst of this awful punishment.
The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under
the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentrated at her
bosom. It was almost intolerable to be borne. Of an impulsive and passionate nature, she had
fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely wreaking itself
in every variety of insult; but there was a quality so much more terrible in the solemn mood of
the popular mind, that she longed rather to behold all those rigid countenances contorted with
scornful merriment, and herself the object.
Hawthorne
clearly admires Hester Prynne. While he does not glorify or condone her sin, his tone is one of
reverence and respect for this woman who bears what she must in the face of insults and hatred.
He also seems to connect with her, as if he would feel the same way she does if it were him on
the scaffold that day.
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