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.

mike bosco 4,6,8,9

In the chapters 4, 6, 8, and 9 we continue to see how big the importance of reputation is to the townspeople. Hester leaves the city because of the negativity and hate she is receiving from everyone around her and begins a new life with her daughter, Pearl, in a small cottage just outside the town. However even though she has removed herself from the society she is still lectured by passing preachers as sh tries to sell garments to the poor to make money. Even children know the importance of reputation because they recognize her as different and follow her around with "shrill cries" through the streets.

1-3

In the first three chapters of the Scarlet letter, we learn that Hester Prynne is an adulteress with a young child, Pearl. She is standing on a podium while the fellow citizens, which are puritans, yell at her and insult her for her causing adultery. Although she appears cool and calm on the outside, Hawthorne tells us that she is panicking. Prynne even squeezes her baby to make her cry to throw off some of the puritans. This whole event shows why it is important to keep a clean reputation. A better reputation would allow her to avoid this uncomfortable situation.

The Scarlet Letter: Reputation (CH 1-3)

Reputation was, and still is, very important to most people in society. The Scarlet Letter shows this through the Puritan time period and how strict they were. Hester Prynne's reputation goes down the drain when she has her baby, the problem with this was that her husband has been missing for two years so there is no way that was his baby. People accused her of adultery and wanted to burn an A onto her forehead or to kill her in order to ruin her reputation completely. Her punishment ended up being she had to sew an A onto all of her cloths and would have to walk around in shame for the rest of her life. The society looked down on her and shunned her for this act. Now she will be looked upon as a sinner in the society and be will be treated as so, "But the point which drew all eyes, and, as it were, transfigured the wearer,-so that both men and women, who had been familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne, -was that scarlet letter, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bossom." (The Scarlet Letter, pg. 51). This quote shows how bold the letter stands out to everybody and how everybody knows what the embroidered letter belongs to Hester. She stands out among everybody in this society and this puts her down. Her reputation can never be restored to what it was and this punishment is extreme during the time period.

In the beginning of the story we see that Hester Prynne is unanimously hated in her town. Having a good reputation is crucial, and in this time period where the Puritans are some of the harshest, most discriminatory in almost all of American history. To survive in this time it was essential to keep everything very conservative and in line. If one were to step out of line even the slightest but, there would be nothing but brutality from the rest of the townspeople. Hester did just that by being adulterous; although she is a strong willed person and she can take the discrimination, he will never be able to make something of herself other than an mischievous whore. She now is alone and there is nothing she can do about it. A known adulterous person is Dimmesdale, however the townspeople do not know this. Dimmesdale is extremely precocious in keeping his name a secret because e is fully aware of what will happen if his reputation is destroyed. Having a good reputation is prevalent in these first chapters as one can tell from what is happening to Hester.

D. P.

mike bosco chapters 1-3

     In the first three chapters it is very clear that to the people of Boston, reputation is of huge importance. We can see this in the villagers, they use publicly shamming someone as a form of punishment to completely decimate the reputation of the accused. Hester tries to combat this but standing proud and accepting her punishment to try to save the small bit of respect some people still have for her. Finally, Reverend Dimmesdale, the most educated and respected man in the town is doing all that he can to protect his reputation and not get arrested for adultery like Hester.