The Scaffold

The Scaffold

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Chapter 3: The Recognition

1. Reverend Dimmesdale's way with words:
           Hawthorne describes Dimmesdale as a young scholarly man who seems almost shy, but when he speaks to Hester in front of everybody, inquiring who the father of her child is, people are moved and are sure she has to give him the name. As Hawthornes writes:

"The young pastor's voice was tremulously sweet, rich, deep, and broken. The feeling that it so evidently manifested, rather than the direct purport of the words, caused it to vibrate within all hearts, and brought the listeners into one accord of sympathy." This is what makes me believe that he is speaking from his own heart, he feels what he is saying deeply.

When Dimmesdale says: "Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin?" It is easy to believe that he is possibly talking about himself. He is telling her to turn him in so that he may feel better, that carrying around the guilt of knowing that he has sinned and is now lying about it, is worse than being called out on his wrong-doings.

2. Hester prynne’s loyalty:
    When demanded to speak the name of her illegitimate child's father, Hester refuses. She does not speak his name even when bribed with the removal of the scarlet letter from her clothing, as Reverend Wilson offers in the qoutation:
 
"Woman, transgress not beyond the limits of Heaven's mercy!" cried the Reverend Mr. Wilson, more harshly than before. "That little babe hath been gifted with a voice, to second and confirm the counsel which thou hast heard. Speak out the name! That, and thy repentance, may avail to take the scarlet letter off thy breast." "Never," replied Hester Prynne, looking, not at Mr. Wilson, but into the deep and troubled eyes of the younger clergyman. "It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony as well as mine!" 'Speak, woman!" said another voice, coldly and sternly, proceeding from the crowd about the scaffold, "Speak; and give your child a father!" "I will not speak!" answered Hester, turning pale as death, but responding to this voice, which she too surely recognised. "And my child must seek a heavenly father; she shall never know an earthly one!"
     Hester has a chance to rat out the father of her illegitimate child but she stays quiet and refuses to utter the father’s name. She knows that the scarlet letter will always be a part of her and no matter what she says they can’t free her from it. It is interesting that she is keeping the man, who got her into all of this trouble, safe. Hester Prynne is the symbol of loyalty, though ironically she was not loyal to her husband. In this time, it was a giant sin to commit adultry but the fact that her husband is probably dead as they are not even positive he is still alive because he has been gone for so long, thus making her sin less horrible in the eyes of todays public.
 
The Wow Factor: Batman in The Dark Knight
 
 
  At the end of The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent, Gothams hero, is dead and has just killed five people because the Joker murdered the love of his life, Rachel, and he goes crazy. Gotham however needs a hero like Dent, much like Hester Prynne's town needs Dimmesdale. In conclusion Batman takes the blame for everything that harvey does because he does not want Gotham to lose hope. Hester takes the full blame for something that is both her fault and Dimmesdale's. She understands that it would be higher stakes if he were caught than if just she is, so she plays the silent scapegoat.

 
 
 

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