Third post on The Scarlett Letter

As the story comes to a conclusion, the reputations of the main characters remain reflective of their positions. The reputation of Hester Prynne was terrible to say the least and it showed no improvement throughout the story; I had no expectation for these bellicose puritans to so easily forget one of the most hated people to ever live in the town. Hester decides that she has finally had enough and she decides that she wants to flee with Dimmesdale to England and away from where she is an exile so that she can live a normal life. She has realized that her reputation in society has truly taken a toll on her, as well as her daughter, Pearl's, lives. Therefore she has nothing to lose by leaving, however Dimmesdale still does have a great reputation in the town,  and he too realizes the strength of s good reputation and reallly does not want to lose it.

SW 4,6,8,9

In chapters four, six, eight, and nine, the importance of reputation is portrayed more often. In these chapters, a reputation in jeopardy is Pearl's. Pearl purposely tries to anger Governor Bellingham. For example, Bellingham asks Pearl where she is from, and she replies that she was "plucked from a rose". Unfortunately, this also blows up back at Hester and effects her and her reputation negatively.

Mike Bosco last blog

Towards the end of the story Hester begins to realize that reputation isn't as important as everyone in the city seems to think. However not all characters still feel that way, we see this in Dimesdale. Dimesdale is introduced to his daughter, pearl and even though he holds her hand in private he continues to decline Pearl's challenge to walk into the city during the day with all three of them holding hands. Even though all Pearl wants from her father is to be acknowledged in the public as his daughter, he still cannot take the significant hit to reputation that being an adulterer would cause. This shows that Dimesdale still values his reputation greatly and even more than the love of his iligitamate daughter.

Blog Post #1

Chapters 1-3         

          In modern society, most people care deeply about their outer image. We often assess our actions and future actions to assure we are being socially acceptable. During the puritan age, the idea of public appearance was even more important. It was important to appear good and holy, so someone would not accuse them of being a witch/wizard. In the first chapters of The Scarlet Letter, we meet Hester Prynn, a young women accused of adultery with an unknown man. At the time, this crime was not only a mortal sin, but it also destroyed your image. To most this would be devastating, however Hester seems to embrace her sin. In fact, she wears a scarlet colored letter 'A' as she walks to the podium in chapter 2. The women in the crowd make disparaging comments about Hester, particularly criticizing her for the ornateness of the letter. Hester is a social anomaly for the puritans, as most would not be so proud of their faults. 

The Scarlet Letter: Reputation (Chapters 10,12,15, 18-20)

As the novel continues, Hester realizes the opinions of others should not bother her as much as it is. Her reputation is in her own hands and nobody should be able to tell her otherwise. However, Dimmesdale still thinks his reputation is important. Pearl challenges him to hold her hand in front of the whole town, but he refuses to do so. He has been a good citizen for his whole life and he does not want to ruin his reputation in front of the people. Holding hands with Pearl would show everybody that he was the one who had an affair with Hester and he would have to walk around the town in shame with the scarlet "A". But, for the brief time that he did hold her hand at midnight, he felt a new source of life build up in him. He felt better as a person and this led him to be a better preacher. Then, he has the chance to hold both Hester's and Pearl's hands when Hester decides to introduce Pearl to Dimmesdale (even though they've already met). Again, he says is not going to because he has a reputation to keep. Hester then decides that she wants to move to England and start a new life with Pearl so she can change her reputation. Meanwhile, Dimmesdale is going to stay in town and he will continue preaching and act like the good citizen he is known to be.

Second post reputation importance

As the story progresses, it's visible that in the town that people land respectively in a position reflective of their reputations. Hester has become more of an outcast more than an actual towns person because of her sinful acts. Chillingworth, who has come in to the town with a different identity has built his reputation up very well making him a very trusted physician in the town. Dimmesdale remains in a respective position because his adulterous actions are still unknown to the rest of the town. Reputations still remain vital as we see those who are recognized as sinners are shunned while those who make sure that their reputations remain unsoiled are rightfully praised. 

Dp

The Scarlet Letter: Reputation (CH 4, 6, 8, 9)

In these chapter, we see more about how important reputation was during the puritan time period. Hester has already been through enough, but now Governor Bellingham wants to take Pearl away from Hester. Hester argues that she has learned a lot from the Scarlet A on her cloths and that she can take care of Pearl perfectly well. Pearl does not help the situation at all, in fact she is trying to be difficult with the Governor. This starts to give Pearl a bad reputation as well and it certainly give Hester an even worse reputation than what she already had. Bellinghame asks Pearl where she came from and since Pearl is not a normal child, she tries to make Bellingham angry so her answer is that she was plucked from a rose. This make Bellingham go nuts and he almost immediately takes Pearl away from Hester. As you can see, a person reputation could effect people around them during this time. In Hester's case, it was going to effect Pearl and she was going to be taking away, Dimmesdale even suggests that they do research on Pearl because of her strangeness, "It is easy to see the mother's part in her. Would it be beyond a philosopher's research, think ye, to analyze that child's nature, and, from its make and mould, to give a shrewd guess at her father." He used this as one excuse to take her away from Hester, they would do anything to get Pearl away from her because they fear that Pearl will grow up as a sinner due to her mother's reputation and history.