Why does Hester remain in Boston where she is an outcast? Provide textual evidence to support your opinion.
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ReplyDeleteHester Prynne will not leave Boston for her lover still remains and she is determined to protect him as she is in love with the man. She will do anything to protect her new love. "The eyes of the wrinkled scholar glowed so intensely upon her, Hester Prynne clasped her hands over her heart dreading lest he should read the secret there at once." (p.57) She is determined to protect her lover from harm and doesn't want anyone to find him out. She loves him so much that she is willing to take all the punishment for him along with hers. "Ye cannot take [the scarlet letter] off. And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!" (p. 51) She cannot allow her lover to be hurt so she must stay to be near him. It would also hurt her to leave since she will leave behind the one she loves.
ReplyDeleteHester Prynne will not leave Boston to protect her new lover. She wants to be able to stay and do anything to protect him from people finding out who he is, even if that means taking both of their punishments alone. "And that I might endure his agony as well as mine." (pg. 78) She doesn't want him to live like she does, where everyone is judging and making fun of her without taking into consideration of her feelings because she committed a sin. Her husband makes this clear that he will make the man suffer for what he has done. "He bears no letter of infamy wrought into his garment, as thou dost; but I shall read it on his heart." (pg. 87)
ReplyDeleteVery true. She loves this mystery man so she feels he shouldn't be punished for their love. It could possibly hurt both him and her for her to leave, which will cause him to be revealed. That is why she won't leave. Her lover keeps her there. "And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!" (p. 51) She is willing to take all the punishment to make sure her love doesn't suffer like her.
ReplyDeleteHe's not a mystery man or just a "lover" he is Hester prynne's husband. It is stated on pg. 86 chapter 4 "Nay, from the moment when we came down the old church steps together, a married pair..." I would just like to clear that up but a very good response otherwise.
DeleteThere are a few reasons Hester decides to stay in Boston. Hester feels compelled to stay in Boston to punish herself so her soul will be cleansed. She believes that continuing to stay where she is shamed and shunned will be her penance for adultery. “…the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul” (pg. 94). Also, Hester is still in love with Reverend Dimmesdale, the father of Pearl, and thinks by staying one day they could be together.”…with whom she deemed herself connected to in union, that, unrecognized on earth, would bring them together before the bar of final judgment, and make that their marriage altar, for a joint futurity of endless retribution” (pg. 93-94). Another reason Hester doesn’t flee is she doesn’t want the townspeople to get the best of her, if she leaves they will have driven her away but by staying, Hester will show her strength and courage.
ReplyDeleteHester Prynne remains in Boston in the hope that the agony she experiences through the ridicule and judgement she receives from the other Puritans can somehow cleanse her of her sins. (pg. 94) "…here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul." Secondly, while she must endure the pain the Puritans put her through, she also stays to spite them. She proves to them that she can have a meaningful existence despite their efforts to to diminish her and her hopes of a normal life.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bailey that she stays in hope of one day being with Reverend Dimmesdale, but I think that she stays in respect for him. I don't believe she will pursue a relationship with him, but she stays to give him the option to be a part of her and Pearl's lives if he so chooses. She has already betrayed him on the biggest scale possible and I think she feels she owes at least this much to Reverend Dimmesdale.
ReplyDeleteHester Prynne remains in Boston because she feels "bound" to Reverend Dimmesdale and aims to protect him from the public torture and shame she goes through. She keeps the secret and endures the punishment for both of them. She also remains in Boston because this is where her sin was committed and this is where her punishment should be. "Her Sin,her ignominy,were the roots which she had struck into the soil"(pg.93). Hester also believes that by remaining here will help relieve her of her sins and the pain she experiences. "Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost...(pg.95). If she stays and endures her punishment her soul may be relieved of her sin and shame.
ReplyDeleteHester feels that she should remain in Boston because she is, as Alexis said, bound to the father of her baby, and owes him the secrecy of his identity, as she even refuses to tell his name to the man she had once been married to (p.71). In addition, she could be staying as a symbol of strength, so as to show the townspeople that their opinions of her will not discourage her from moving forward in her life. This is shown in Chapter 1 by the adornment and embellishment of the scarlet letter on Hester's dress (p.51), which turned a brand meant for punishment into a thing of beauty, despite its meaning.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few reasons why Hester Prynne decides to stay in the Puritan settelment dispite being a social outcast. One of these reasons is her sin its self and it's connection to familiarity. As the author describes it on page 93, "Her sin, her inominy, were the roots which she had struck into the soil. It was as if a new birth, with stronger assimilations than the first, had converted the forest-land, still so uncogenial to every other pilgrim and wanderer, into Hester Prynne's wild and dreary life-long home. All other scenes of earth... were foreign to her, in comparison." Here we see Hester being attracted to the settelment because it was the site of a major turning point in her life, which gave her the comfort of a familiar area.
ReplyDeleteThere was another, more personal reason as to why Hester stayed. She felt bound to the man with whom she had an affair with and who was Pearl's father. A part of her hoped that, by staying close to him, they can be together in the next life (pg.93 and 94). Hester tries to hide this feeling by convincing herself she was staying to atone for her sin, but in reality she was only deluding herself.
Hester Pryne stays in the Boston settlement for a few reasons, one being to protect her lover, who remains unnamed by the end of chapter four (p.58). Although, it can be assumed, as many of my classmates pointed out, that Reverend Dimmesdale is the father of the child by the way that he acts during Hester's time in the market. The statement that he makes, “though he were to step down from a high place" (p.50), confirms the fact that Hester's fellow sinner comes from a high position in society (such as the Reverend himself). Additionally, Hester stays in order to protect the stranger, whom we come to find out is her husband (p.56), from being discovered and shamed as the man who allowed her sin to take place in his absence. While Hester has contemplated suicide, “‘I have thought of death’ said she – ‘have wished for it – would even have prayed for it, were it fit that such as I should pray for anything’” (p.55), she also understands that as a sinner, she has no hope of ending up in a better place than she is now as she is not even fit to pray for anything in her current state. Also, Hester appears to be determined to prove to her fellow Puritans that she will not allow this transgression to ruin her life, “ Had a roar of laughter burst from the multitude – each man, each women, each shrill-voiced child, contributing their individual parts – Hester Pryne might have repaid them all with a bitter and disdainful smile.” (p.43).
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Luke and Bailey, but more so with Luke's interpretation of the situation. I say this simply because, as Hester states on page 51, "' and my child must seek a heavenly father, she shall never know an earthly one!'", the only way for her daughter to find the heavenly father that Hester speaks of is through Pearl's earthly one. Which, although it is mildly ironic, it allows for the two to still be in each others lives without the shame that would be placed on the Reverend.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Dylan in the fact that she is more than willing to take the punishment for both herself and her, up until this point, unnamed lover. However, as has been already pointed out, her lover and the father of her child is not the mysterious scholar, which is, in fact, her husband, and this is where our opinions differ.
ReplyDeleteThere are many reasons Hester Prynne decided to stay in Boston, one of which was because Boston was the scene of her guilt so staying would be her punishment, and if she followed through she may be able to regain her lost purity. Page 94 says “what she compelled herself to believe - what, finally, she reasoned upon as her motive for her continuing a resident of New England - was half a truth, and half a self delusion.” This is telling us that there was another motive, a more true motive for her staying. This was Pearl’s father, who she felt bound to. Also, it's almost as if Hester doesn't want to let the sin take over her life, or society take over her her choices, so her staying is like her proving her self determination.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bailey. Hester is staying to punish herself for what she has done and also to make sure that Pearl's father is protected. "'It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrate to take off this badge,' calmly replied Hester. 'Were I worthy to be quit of it, it would fall away of its own nature'"(page 129). She wants to be punished and remember how far she's come in her life. On page 51 Hester says, "And that i might endure his agony, as well as mine!" Hester cares for Reverend Dimmesdale and wants him to be able to have a normal life, although she will never have that luxury.
ReplyDeleteMultiple reasons contribute to why Hester remains in Boston where she is an outcast. "Live, therefore, and bear about thy doom with thee, in the eyes of men and women- in the eyes of him whom thou didst call thy husband- in the eyes of yonder child!"(Pg 68). One reason Hester remains in Boston is to pay for what she has done by living the rest of her life in shame knowing what she did was wrong. Hester feels that by punishing herself like this, she will get what she deserves. Another reason for Hester to stay in Boston is to protect the man she committed adultery with, Mr. Dimmesdale. "Ask me not! Replied Hester Prynne, looking firmly into his face. That thou shalt ever know!"(Pg 70). Hester's husband wants to know the man his wife has cheated on him with so he may seek revenge. Hester refuses to confess her new lover and will do anything to protect him. Hester also chooses to stay in Boston because she doesn't want to take the newborn child away from its father.
ReplyDeleteThough Hester Prynne's reputation has already been depleted to nothing, she remains in Boston to avoid being considered even more of a coward than she already is among the townspeople. Page 33 (sorry, going just a little bit ahead, but it remains parallel with the topic) says, "... it may seem marvellous that this woman should still call that place her home, where, and where only, she must needs be the type of shame. But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it had the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human being to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the colour to their lifetime..." Hester remains in Boston because she feels obligated to stay there and pay the price for what she has done, being the bearing of the scarlet letter to the public. It is her "wild and dreary, yet life-long home," and she will pay the due price to it.
ReplyDeleteEven though Hester Prynne"s reputation has been completely destroyed, she chooses to stay in Boston. If she tried to avoid the situation in which she got herself in, the townspeople would consider her even more of a coward. Also, Hester is still in love with the father of her child, Reverend Dimmesdale. She believes that if she stays if Boston, they could hopefully be together one day. ".. and my child must seek a heavenly father; she shall never know an earthly one." (page 79) By saying this, Hester is avoiding answering the child's real father and claiming that the only father she will ever know is God. All together, Hester decided to stay in Boston to be close to the father of her child, and to follow through with her penance for the sin she committed.
ReplyDeleteVery true. This could be for her show of bravery or penance for her sins. However, I see no proof of this choices within these chapters. Her primary reason is to stay near the father of the child. "Ye cannot take [the scarlet letter] off. And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!" (p. 51) She will be there for him but will protect him by staying.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Shaena Webster and True Williams, more with True Williams though. Hester Prynne stays in Boston to not be seen as weak and a coward for leaving. She wanted to be strong and stand out by taking the punishments alone. Hester thinks that if she leaves Boston, then she will not be getting what she deserves. In the book it says, "Hester Prynne, meanwhile, kept her place upon the pedestal of shame, with glazed eyes, and an air of weary indifference." (Pg. 64) Hester is standing up against the crowd and facing one of her multiple punishments, public humiliation.
ReplyDeleteHester feels that she will have almost a saintly effect from taking on the cruelty of others almost as martyrdom. Through it, she thinks that she will be more accepted in heaven and her punishment shall be removed. Also she doesn't want to seem as though she is running from her problems, which could be taken as cowardous or weak minded. It's all about accepting her punishment to be forgiven.
ReplyDeleteTaylor, your case is plausible and I certainly would agree. I just see no evidence to prove your case.
ReplyDeleteBrianna, what you say is very true. She tries to be strong and thinks she deserves this punishment.
As many have expressed, I see where Hester stays in Boston because of what her "punishment" offers. This reason for staying is explicitly mentioned in The Scarlet Letter (pg. 69) as written, "her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost... Hester Prynne, therefore, did not flee." In this quote the reader gains insight into how the scarlet letter actually benefits Hester. For her, the burden of staying in Boston allowed her to feel as if she was indeed confronting her sin rather than trying to run from it. From this Hester develops into the one of the strongest characters in the entire novel. But, in this quote it is the last sentence that ties this together. By reading "Hester Prynne, THEREFORE, did not flee." The use of the word "Therefore" explains the connection between why she stays and the benefit. By saying this, it means the ridicule and exile in Boston is outweighed by the benefit that comes from staying, ultimately resulting in Hester staying.
ReplyDeleteHester stays in Boston because with the scarlet letter she feels stronger. She feels as if the pain helps to motivate her. As stated on page84-85 "as he spoke, he laid his long forefinger on the scarlet letter, which forthwith seemed to scorch into Hester's breast" This pain and punishment is a motivator. Sitting in a room with her husband who she has cheated on she still has the strength to keep her daughter safe and stand up for herself. This emblem on her breast gives her strength and courage.
ReplyDeleteHester stays in Boston for many reasons. She made several mistakes, and is being punished for them all. Hester, a woman full of courage will remain there despite the hatred towards her. Its not only her, she is a mother. The decision to stay in Boston is based on not only what is best for her but her daughter. Also, like classmates, I believe Pearl's father is Reverend Dimmesdale. I do not believe that's her reason to stay, again she is making the choice for two now. The puritans of the town despise her and she could flee, but in no place would she be better. So, she made this choice for her daughter. She wants the best for her, and meeting her earthly father is something she seeks for Pearl. “ Had a roar of laughter burst from the multitude – each man, each women, each shrill-voiced child, contributing their individual parts – Hester Pryne might have repaid them all with a bitter and disdainful smile.” Disregarding her sins, the 'carrousel never stops spinning' so she will continue to live her life with dignity and nothing less, in Boston for her, and mostly her daughter.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brianna Smallwood. If Hester leaves Boston, she fears what others are going to think of her. This would make her look weak and she wants to own up to what she has done. She doesn't want to look cowardly and chooses to stay in order to maintain her reputation.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Caity. I too believe that Hester wasn't just making this decision for herself. She wanted to be a good mother and make this sacrifice for her daughter so in the end, Pearl could meet her father Mr.Dimmesdale. If Hester would have left, her daughter would have never really known her true father.
ReplyDeleteHester is deciding to stay in Boston for many reasons but mostly to protect her lover because she feels loyalty to him. "[Chillingworth's] eyes glowed so intensely upon her, that Hester Prynne clasped her hand over her heart, dreading lest he should read the secret at once" But also she's staying as a way to show the townspeople that they cant destroy her or stop her from living her life. Like the way that the letter was supposed to be a mark of shame but instead it is beautiful with its gold embroidery.
ReplyDeleteThere are likely many reasons that Hester has not left Boston, despite being hated and shamed by almost everyone. It could be because of emotional attachment to her city, even though it bears no attachment to her. This is not uncommon for people of her time frame, people grow attached to their life in one place and do not wish to leave it. It could also be that she is sending a message, that she will not be detterred regardless of the hate and shame that is now upon her,and will own up to and face her sin, stating "And that I might endure his agony as well as mine." (pg. 78). But it is most likely that she is staying for reasons regarding her daughter. In that time frame, it is very difficult to just pick up and leave your city, especially when 1) everyone despises you and will likely be of no assistance with any sort of move 2) She has a child, and the likelihood of her and a child surviving a long distance move during this time frame is small, and she certainly does not wish to endanger her childs life.
ReplyDeleteHester doesn't leave Boston because she feels tied to it. She is shamed wherever she goes because of her actions. She can't escape the life she brought upon herself so she decides to just stay. For example, on page 58 it states "An entire class of susceptibility, and a gift connected with them--of no great richness or value, but the best i had--was gone from me." She is saying that no matter what she does, no matter where she goes, her shame will always stay with her. That is a prime example of why she doesn't go anywhere, because it will change nothing.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, Hester stays in Boston because she doesn't want to actually be what everyone sees her as. The townspeople think she is weak. On page 79, the townspeople talk to Hester as if she was less than them. "'Speak woman!' said another voice, coldly and sternly" Hester wants to prove them wrong. She knows she is more than what she has done and can eventually convince the townspeople of that. Secondly, Hester doesn't want to leave Boston because Pearl's real father is there. The story hinted that Hester wanted to reconnect with Pearl's real father, Dimmesdale.
ReplyDeleteHester stays in Boston because she is tied to the feeling of being in the place of her crime and punishment. Any other place would feel just as strange or even stranger. "Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter". Even though she is mocked there, it feels normal and she accepts her punishment and the mockery. In any other town or city she would not have the same bond to her scarlet letter punishment.
ReplyDeleteHester stays in Boston ultimately stand up for herself. She is looked down on on page 79, where things are being said such as, ""Speak woman!"" She needs to show them that this isn't the only thing that defines her and her way of life. While also wanting to reconnect with Pearl's father, that gives her another reason to stay in Boston. She stays in Boston because she in a since feels like "home" because this is where her child's father is at.
ReplyDeleteHester stays in Boston ultimately stand up for herself. She is looked down on on page 79, where things are being said such as, ""Speak woman!"" She needs to show them that this isn't the only thing that defines her and her way of life. While also wanting to reconnect with Pearl's father, that gives her another reason to stay in Boston. She stays in Boston because she in a since feels like "home" because this is where her child's father is at.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost like Hester can't leave Boston. We know from chapter 3 that she feels a need to protect her lover from the guilt of their sin on page 58, "' It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!'" She also has to think about her husband who has now resurfaced and taken the name of a physician.
ReplyDeleteI have a question why does Hester not share the identity of Pearls father. What textual evidence can I find to back up this claim
ReplyDelete