Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 18 Ch. 10

Pearl makes the A out of prickly burrs on the grave because she watches her mother create things all the time. She also constinly sees the Red A on her mothers chest. But why Hawthorne did it is a completley different story. Placing the A on the tomb is saying that he is holding sins, and cannot express them, because he is now dead. Then when pearl throws prickly burrs at Dimmsdale because he is holding sin inside of him. Also she throws it at him, because she has a fatherly instinct towards him. She doesnt exactly know that she is her father but, she un-knowingly knows it.

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 17 Ch. 9

The Leech

Roger Chillingworth is compared to a leech.  Hawthorne describes Chillingworth as being attached to Dimmsdale. He wants to "cure" Dimmsdale, which leechs were used to cure people. Roger is trying to suck the information out of Dimmsdale, just like a leech. In the early years of his marrige to Hester, he was very distant, but expected her to nourish him. He can not have relationships with the people around him but he feeds off others. 

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 16 pg. 113 Ch. 10

".....like one of those gleams of gahstly fire that darted from bunyan's awful do or-way in the hill side, and quivered on the pilgrams face."

This is yet another hit that connects Chillingworth with the devil. Bunyan's is a firey entrance to hell. What this means is that he is the devil, or hell and you can tell my the gleams of fire that are in his eyes.

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 15 Pg. 103 Ch. 8

"Wilt thou go with us to-night? There will be a merry company in the forest; and I wellnigh promised the Black Man that comely Hester Prynne should make one."

The forest is set up to be a bad place. Hester is sent there to keep her away from society, the black man there. Also I think Miss Hibbons goes there for whitch craft.

...Fielding, im going to add more later...

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 14 Ch. 7

The Governors House

In Puritan society everything seems to be dull and grey. A Governor is usually supposed to represent and go along with the ways of the society. Governor Bellingham is kind of a hypocrite. Hawthorne describes the mansion to better fit Aladdin than a “grave old puritan ruler.” The mansion is bright and decorated with broken glass so when the sun comes in it glitters and sparkles all over the room.    

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 13 Ch. 7 pg. 90

“It was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life!”

The “A” has many definitions. Hawthorne right now is saying that Pearl is the the scarlet letter in human form. Pearls is wearing a red satin dress with gold thread. The “A” is red surrounded with gold thread. Hawthorne says that, “she seemed the un-premeditated offshoot of a passionate moment.” Meaning that she was the un-planned result of Hester and Dimmsdales affair. The “A” is a result of that, and so is Pearl. Hester is comparing her affection and torture and guilt of the “A” and showing it with Pearl. 

Scarlet Letter Themes

THEMES:

Nature vs. Human Law
Nature of Evil
Sin vs. Forgiveness or Punishment vs. Forgiveness
Individual vs. Society
Exile
Public Guilt vs. Private Guilt
Civilization vs. Wilderness or Town vs. Woods
Good vs. Evil

NOTES:

Hester Prynne
Hester: Hestier in Greek mythology, Zeus’s sister, a woman of beauty
hestier (hasty)
Prynne: prurient
prune: purify her sin
pry: probe into the interior of one’s heart

Arthur Dimmesdale
Arthur: Adam, adultery
Dimmesdale: dim + dale: dim interior (to hide one’s sin )

Roger Chillingworth
Roger: rogue (revenge)
Chillingworth: chilly (cruel, inhumane)
+ worth (induce Arthur to speak out his own sin)

Pearl: good, pure and precious


Scarlet: Definition

Function: adjective
1 of the color scarlet
2 a : grossly and glaringly offensive
Function: noun
Middle English scarlat, scarlet, from Anglo-French escarlet, from Medieval Latin scarlata, from Persian saqalAt, a kind of rich cloth
1 : scarlet cloth or clothes
2 : any of various bright reds
Main Entry: scarlet letter
Function: noun_: a scarlet A worn as a punitive mark of adultery

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 12

"Day after day, she looked fearfully into the child's expanding nature; ever dreading to detect some dark and wild peculiarity, that should correspond with the guiltiness to which she owed her being"


In other words Hester expected Pearl to be the one that suffered, for being the result of sin rather than a blessing from that sin. She is already an outcast of the puritan religion. Pearl is already teased. All Hester wants is pearl to be normal.

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 11 ch. 6

Pearl.


Hester said she named her baby pearl because she was a great prize and her only treasure. Pearls represent purity. Which is ironic, because Pearl came into this world because of her mother not being pure. Pearls also can stimulate you femininity, and help with self acceptance. They remind you to walk with dignity. They also provide a mirror to see ourselves, but also how we appear to others. I think Hester named Pear, Pearl, because she wants to be reminded that even though she came in to life because of a sin she can still walk high, and accept what happened.

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 10 Ch. 5 pg. 71

Throught them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point..."


This is saying that she is now the symbol of all sin. Everyone is now going to look at her and thats what they would not do. She is ashamed of what she has done, but cannot do anything about it.

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 9 Ch. 5 pg. 75

"But it is not recorded that, in a single instance, her skill was called in aid to embroider the white veil which was to cover the pure blushes of a bride. The exception indicated the ever relentless vigor with which society frowned upon her sin."


Hester is trying to make a living to feed her and her daughter. She is very skilled at making clothes. But everyone thought everything she did would be sinned. She was not allowed to make stuff for brides, because they thought she would ruin the brides pureness. I don't think she was really sad about not being able to do this. She has already been "banished" from everything.  I don't think she could loose much more. 

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 8 Ch. 4 pg. 69

I come to the inquest with other senses than they possess. I shall seek this man as i have sought truth in books; as I have sought gold in alchemy. The is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see hm tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawareness. Sooner or later, he must needs to be min!"

Roger wants to know who the man is that had the baby with Hester that he will have to find out somehow other than from Hester. He will use alchemy, to figure out who it is. Alchemy is like magic, which was frowned upon at this time. He is going to keep searching for this man until he finds him. He want him to suffer.

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 7 Ch. 4 pg. 67

“Live, therefore, and bear about thy doom with thee, in the eyes of men and women—in the eyes of him thou didst call thy husband—in the eyes of yonder child! And, that thou mayst live, take off this draught.”


I think Roger Chillingworth (her husband) is kind of a twisted evil man. He is angry with her(which he should be) but instead of not helping them and have her die, he wants them both to stay alive and healthy so they can both endure the punishment and humiliation. Even though he does seem like an eveil man now--- after he found out his wife had a baby--- he was a nice man. He was a book worm and all he wanted was to have a family with Hester. So is he good or bad??

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 6 Ch. 2 pg. 49

"Ah, but," interposed, more softly, a young wife, holding a child by the hand, "let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart."

This women is slightly more sympathetic then the other gossipers. Every one else is saying how horrible a sin this is, and that she should die for it. Even though this women thinks this is still a sin, she knows that this punishment is not necessary. Hester will always carry the grief in her heart, and never forget this awful thing she did. So the do not need to put her on the pedestal and humiliate her. 

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 5 Ch. 3. pg. 62

"Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph over the evil within thee, and the sorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him—who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself—the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips!"


Here the pastor is kind of defending Hester in a way. He is saying that it is harder for her to keep this a secret because she has a baby to prove it. The baby's dad, doesn't have any evidence. I think she is trying to save whoever it the dad is from the punishment. You would think that the man would want to take the blame and punishment for all of it instead of have Hester go through it. (It would be the gentlemanly thing to do).  

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 4 Ch. 2 pg. 50

"Those 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."


The puritans do not expect Hester Prynne to look so lady-like and so elegant. I think they were so confused by how beautiful she was they thought because she committed such a terrible Sin she would be dressed in a more gloomy outfit. Her "wild" attire represents what she is feeling on the inside. Hawthorne is trying to describe that she doesn't think what she did was so wrong. She is showing that even though she did wrong, she can still be beautiful and feel beautiful. 

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 3 Ch. 2 pg. 50

The Red "A"

The A not only symbolizes something on its own, but it is also like the wild rose bush. The Rose bush stands in front of the prison and is the first thing you would see as you walk in the prison. Also the Red "A" is on the breast of her gown for everyone to see. Hawthorne described the A as so artistically done and  with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy. Which i think is ironic because it is supposed to mean Adulterer, and represent a sin that she committed. Like the rose bush, it shows that there is still hope even though you have committed a sin.

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 2 Ch. 1 pg. 45

"But, on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose bush, covered in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to off their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went it, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him."

  I think the rose bush is trying to represent that their is hope and salvation even in the darkest places. Hawthorne says it offers it's delicate gems to the prisoner as he went in and the condemned criminal as he came forth his doom. 
   The rose bush has been kept alive even after the fall of the gigantic pines and it being overshadowed by the oak. Hawthorne uses an allusion to Ann Hutchinson. She was a strong women that stuck with her beliefs. She was accused of antinomianism, so she was abolished from Massachusetts Bay Colony. Then she moved to Rhode Island and was the first women to establish a town in America. The rose is compared to her because no matter what it went through it still stuck out and stayed strong. 
   

Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 1 ch. 1 pg. 45

"A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes."

This is explaining the Puritans. Hawthorne is setting up the tone of the story. He describes this as a dark, colorless place. Puritans belive that that they were chosen by God for a special purpose and they have to base their lives around God. They originally came to start a utopia of human virtue and happiness. But the first thing they do is set up a cemetery and prison. They wanted to have a city of god. If they did not follow these religious vows, they were thought to worship the devil. They are said to be dressed in "sad-colored gowns." This goes along with the way they are living their lives, they are all about god and nothing else. It was sinful to dress in elaborate clothes.