Natalie Murphy September
11 2003
American Lit. Per.
4
Hester has just given birth to her new daughter Pearl and is going
through public humiliation, but does she let her towns people put her down and
loose the little pride she still has? Not at all Hester may have many people
upset with her right now but the decision she made is a courageous one. The
first reason being that she didn’t take the chance of winning people over. She
also relied on her faith to keep her strong. The third reason why this was a
wise choice is because, this person she has committed adultery with could be
the man she had recently fallen in love with.
If most people were put into the situation Hester was in they would
most likely have given into the crowd and admitted to who her mystery man was.
She is now being forced to wear the letter “A” this will allow her to be picked
out of a crowd if she is even ever a lot to be in public again and yet she
still manages to smile at a man in the crowd and hold her baby close to her
because it’s the only thing she has to call her own. Whether Hester knew the
people would not treat her any better if she told the truth or not she still
knew what she thought was right and stuck by it.
At this time no matter what your religious beliefs may be they were
strong and you didn’t even consider going against them. These beliefs were also
the law therefore you were only getting yourself into worse circumstances. In
Gods eyes everyone should be treated equally and it is not up to us to judge
one another it is his decision to decide what we are guilty of. The town where this is all taking place is a
very close group of people both physically and spiritually. The fact that the
father of this child is her minister may sound as if it only makes the
situation worse but I feel that it explains a lot because if this is someone
that she has been looking up to for so many years then how couldn’t she trust
him into thinking that this was good and loving situation.
Is Hester truly in love? Maybe at this point in the story we can not
decide where her and this man stand but we are able to see that she has given
us no reason not to believe that she has been an extremely lonely person for
the time that her husband has yet to return. Hester was a firm believer in her
religion and if she didn’t think what she was doing was simply the work of God
then I don’t think she would have committed such a serious sin. Why would
anyone want to be hated by so many if they didn’t really believe it was for the
right reasons in the end?
After getting this far in the book I think Hester will end up being
a great person to admire because she has proven that you need to stand up for
what you think is right and not allow the people around you to influence your
choice. She has definitely chosen the right path to follow and even though she
may have made a few decisions that the church may disagree with she made them
for the right reason and I think will raise her child if given the chance to
the best that she can. She will only move forward in her journey of faith.
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