During Chapter 5 and 6 we are introduced to her baby, Pearl, in greater depth.

Chapter 5 stresses the seperation between Hester and the rest of the society. It tells of the children that say things they don't understand (repeating adults) about her.

Hester Pryne makes a living off of her amazing skills with a needle and thread.

Its ironic, the upperclass will hire her to make things but non the less "bite the hand that fed them."

Although Hester Prynne refused to enjoy her work herself, her little girl did reap the benefits, playing in beautiful gowns that were fit for royalty.

Hester sees something in her baby girls eyes, something that excites her but makes her uneasy. She says the only time she's at peace is when shes asleep. I'm not sure what it is shes talking about but it sounds weird.

As Pearl gets older it's a mystery as to how she understands the difference between her and the other children, how she knows there is an upspoken seperation.

Chapters 3-4

Chapter three opens up with Hester Pryne still standing on the skaffold in front of the whole town, where she spots a man of small stature and "remarkable intellegent features" in the crowd. He makes a curious gesture at her that we don't understand until Chapter 4.
The clergy and government men on the balcony above her address Hester and try to get her to release the name of the man that engaged in her sin with her, but it proves to be in vain for Hester Pryne will not tell the secret that lays in her heart.

That night when she returns to the prison, she is in "a state of nervous excitement that demanded constant watchfulness." Her baby is also in writhing pain that causes it to cry endlessly. A man by the name of Roger Chillingworth, comes to treat the her and the baby.
While he is there, there is a sense of great tension between this man and Hester. Finally, he reveals himself as Hesters husband that had told Hester to go ahead of him into the village while he traveled into the foret learning from the Indians.
To an extent he blames himself for what has happend, knowing he hasn't been a husband to her and she has been left there by herself in a new place but at the same time he tells her to keep his name as a secret in her heart, just as she has kept the name of man who has fathered her baby.

I feel bad for Hester Pryne, her pain must be unbearable. I don't agree with what she did but I definitely understand why she did it. First being married to a man, obviously not for love, and then left to her lonesome in a new town by herself. I can understand how she would have reacted when a man finally did take notice to her and treated her the way she longed for and now to be left by herself, with this scarlet letter embroidered acrossed her breast. The pain I couldn't imagine.

Starting out.

Day one, I havent really gotten far at all in the book. I didnt read the introductory, my mom read it and said it was boring, it was forty pages long. Maybe I should read it. Ive heard a lot about this book, setting high expectations for what I think about it just starting out. I dont really count this as a reflection because im seriously three pages into the book so I dont know how I could.



So far I like Hester Pryne, I like her strength amiss all the turmoil going on in her own life.
I actually find humor in how they describe the women of the era, more manly than feminine.


They only thing that im finding difficult about the book is that, not only is much of the language in old English but the literature itself is very poetic.