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Dialectical Journal For The Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter Chapters 1-6 Response Journal Chapter one The Prison Door sets the mood of the novel. It describes how the founders of the Puritan colony knew there would be crime so they built a prison. It can be inferred that the mood is cruel because of how everything in the jail is described. “The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique than anything else on the world” (Hawthorne, 41). The decay and oldness of the prison door makes it seem as if scary inmates are inside. There is also a rose bush in front of the prison door which symbolizes that it is the last appealing thing a prisoner will se going into prison. In the second chapter The Market Place, Hester Prynne exits the prison to face the entire town which mocks her. She is holding a child and has a scarlet letter “A” sewn on her bosom which stands for adultery. The narrator talks about her past and her beauty. …show more content…

He silences Hester in order to protect his reputation and lies about abandoning her. Dimmesdale demands Hester to reveal who her lover is but she doesn’t have enough courage to say that it is him. He too abandons Hester with their child. Chillingsworth checks in on Hester and her child as a physician in chapter four, The Interview. Hester wonders if he is seeking revenge, but he forgives her. However, the fact that he stays in town and tells Hester not to tell anyone he is her husband makes it seem as if he is going to seek revenge. Chapter five begins with Hester being released from prison and her moving to the outskirts of a town in a cottage away from everyone in order to avoid getting ridiculed everyday. However, she stays in Boston where everyone know her sins in order to feel the pain of her sins. Hester had no social life due to her sins and was condemned in the streets by ministers who began sermons on sins at the sight of

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