Prynne is forced to wear the eponymous token over her clothes for the. It may be, we shall see flowers there more beautiful ones than we find in the woods. The novel’s most central theme is that of shame and judgmentit is the focal point of the story’s first scene, when Hester Prynne is publicly ridiculed on the scaffold in the town square, and it permeates nearly every part of the book from there on. The three hold hands, and Dimmesdale actually feels good. "Come along, Pearl!" said she, drawing her away, "Come and look into this fair garden. Dimmesdale invites Hester and Pearl up to the scaffold, whose presence he had not previously noticed. That look of naughty merriment was likewise reflected in the mirror, with so much breadth and intensity of effect, that it made Hester Prynne feel as if it could not be the image of her own child, but of an imp who was seeking to mould itself into Pearl's shape. But in their great mercy and tenderness of heart, they have domed Mistress Prynne to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then and thereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom. Pearl pointed upward, also, at a similar picture in the head-piece smiling at her mother, with the elfish intelligence that was so familiar an expression on her small physiognomy. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it. (Notice that three and seven are 'magic' numbers. She appears as an infant in the first scaffold scene, then at the age of three, and finally at the age of seven. Rather, she is a complicated symbol of an act of love and passion, an act which was also adultery. Read this excerpt from chapter 1 of The Scarlet Letter. Young children run heedlessly before Hester to the scaffold. Old women march Hester to the scaffold, voicing their disapproval. Hester looked, by way of humoring the child and she saw that, owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. Pearl is not meant to be a realistic character. A military procession organizes the crowd and proceeds to the scaffold. Little Pearl-who was as greatly pleased with the gleaming armour as she had been with the glittering frontispiece of the house-spent some time looking into the polished mirror of the breastplate.
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