DJs 6-10

DJ 6.
 Pg 55. "She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast, that it sent forth a cry... Yes! -these were her realities, --all else had vanished."

When Hester is standing before the town, being harshly judged and ridiculed, she was having a hard time realizing the severe reality of her situation. The crying of the baby and the feeling of the scarlet letter on her clothes made her situation seem very real. The cry of the baby symbolizes Hester's realization of how difficult her life was about to become. Everything else in the world seemed to vanish as Hester took into account how torturous the rest of her life would be while everyone judged her for her sin. Above all she was ashamed of her actions that led Hester to conviction and in order to accept the challenges before her, she would need to seek forgiving from herself.

DJ 7.
Pg 56. "Very soon, however, his look became keen and penetrative. A writhing horror twisted itself across his features, like a snake gliding swiftly over them..."

This talks about the look of the stranger in the crowd that Hester sees when she is standing before the towns people. This is a foreshadow for the person the stranger, Chillingsworth, turns into when he gets caught up in trying to find out who the baby daddy is. A snake a common symbol for evil, and later in the novel, he is compared to be like the devil. Even in the very beginning, he had an evil presence about him that becomes more and more prominent as the novel continues.

DJ 8.
Pg 62. "What can thy silence do for him, except  in temo him -- yea, compel him, as it were -- to add hypocrisy to sin?"

This is part of the speech the Reverend Mr. Dimmsdale gives Hester trying to convince her to release the name of her fellow sinner. The whole conversation is ironic because he is the fellow sinner and one who preaches about being faithful to God. Anyone is his situation would be a hypocrite, but especially him because he encourages other to be good Christians. As the novel develops Reverend Dimmsdale become for pale and ill, probably from the guilt of not only sinning, but allowing Hester to take full blame for this sin. Also for leaving her with full responsibility of the child. Dimmsdale also craves forgiveness, but not personal forgiving, but from God. His guilt is more private then Hester's, but he seems to suffer more then her.

DJ 9.
Hester Prynne

The name that Hawthorne gives the protagonist of this story is very symbolic, as is most of the names in this story. Her first name, Hester, is a Greek word meaning star. Stars are known for illuminating the sky or darkness. This fits into the theme light vs. dark. She has the ability to turn a punishment and a dark situation and bring it into the light to make it good. She took the representation of the letter A, which originally stood for adultery, and turned it into positive things that she later represented, like art or angle. The first part of her last name, Prynne, is Pry. She was the pry of a predatory society that pried into her personal life and made it a public humiliation. In the Puritan society, nothing was private and she was one of manly who suffered from it.

DJ 10.
Pg 66.
"Foolish Woman!... The medicine is potent for good; and were it my child, -- yea, mine own, as well as thine! -- I could do no better for it."

This is part of the conversation that Chillingsworth, Hester's husband that has been missing for two years, has with Hester about medicine for her, although he is talking about more than medicine. He is angry about the situation the Hester has put herself in and is disguising himself as a doctor, while he tries to find out who the baby daddy it. His tone in this conversation is very angry. He is mad that he never had the chance to be a good father for his and Hester child that they never had. He is jealous and angry which drives him to be a dark person that resembles the devil.