{"id":1392147,"date":"2016-09-21T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T16:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/?p=1392147"},"modified":"2017-02-23T16:21:50","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T21:21:50","slug":"blogging-the-scarlet-letter-part-3-chapters-4-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/blogging-the-scarlet-letter-part-3-chapters-4-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogging <i>The Scarlet Letter<\/i>: Part 3 (Chapters 4-6)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/bloggingscarletletter_main2_LargeWide.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"701\" height=\"394\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/2016\/09\/19\/blogging-the-scarlet-letter-part-2-chapters-1-3\" target=\"_blank\">Previously in Blogging The Scarlet Letter<\/a>, Hester was \u00a0being \u00a0escorted back into the prison after \u00a0refusing \u00a0to tell anyone who the father of her baby is.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Chapter 4: The Interview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hester is panicked because the husband she hasn&#8217;t seen or heard from in about two years just gave her \u00a0the universal &#8220;shh&#8221; signal \u00a0from the crowd onlooking her public punishment. A useful \u00a0thing I learned from \u00a0<em>Criminal Minds<\/em> is that there&#8217;s \u00a0an 85% chance this guy will murder me in my sleep.<\/p>\n<p>We learn that Husband \u00a0has been going by the pseudonym \u00a0of Roger CHILLINGWORTH, which is going in my bucket of laziest villain names in \u00a0literature. (Really Anita, you didn&#8217;t believe \u00a0CRUELLA DE VIL \u00a0had ulterior motives?)<\/p>\n<p>Good news: Chillingworth is currently in prison \u00a0(he is contained).<\/p>\n<p>Bad news: Chillingworth is currently in \u00a0THIS prison (he is contained in close proximity to Hester).<\/p>\n<p>Not because he reeks \u00a0of immorality, but because the \u00a0Native Americans are negotiating his ransom. \u00a0Somehow, he convinces the jail officer that he&#8217;s a doctor and \u00a0claims he has \u00a0a tonic to calm the nerves of Hester and her screaming baby. The \u00a0officer escorts him to her cell and then gives them some privacy, which appears \u00a0to be acceptable \u00a0protocol.<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"giphy-embed\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/kaq6GnxDlJaBq\" width=\"480\" height=\"530\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>Me upon hearing this news<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/chloe-concerned-kaq6GnxDlJaBq\">via GIPHY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hester is \u00a0terrified when he shows up to her \u00a0cell. So is the baby, who \u00a0can&#8217;t eat solids but already has a moral compass. Chillingworth \u00a0offers them the tonic, to which Hester responds how anyone would when their crazy ex slides back into their DMs:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hester: \u00a0<\/strong>Are you about to poison \u00a0me and my newborn? Because it sort of feels like you are.<br \/>\n<strong>Chillingworth: \u00a0<\/strong>What could possibly be the reason for doing that?<br \/>\n<strong>Hester: \u00a0<\/strong>I cheated on you multiple times and then had someone else&#8217;s child out of wedlock, thereby tarnishing your reputation and \u00a0putting your family to shame.<br \/>\n<strong>Chillingworth<\/strong><strong>: \u00a0<\/strong>Oh, that. \u00a0Nope!<\/p>\n<p>Hester&#8217;s not convinced. I&#8217;m not either. But Chillingworth&#8217;s tonic calms the baby (tg), so Hester agrees to drink it too. It doesn&#8217;t appear to have any negative effects.<\/p>\n<p>He rambles a little about how he probably shouldn&#8217;t have married her in the first place because her youth and mind \u00a0were being wasted on his old, \u00a0dismissive peanut shell \u00a0of a self. Don&#8217;t \u00a0let this fool you, because his next words are: \u00a0&#8220;Anyway, the real reason you&#8217;re in here because I&#8217;m foolish and you&#8217;re weak. You&#8217;re weak because you cheated on me, and I&#8217;m foolish because I shoulda seen it coming from A MILE AWAY.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t make me feel bad for you and then pull the old original sin bait and switch on me, ROGER. I&#8217;m so \u00a0angry about this that my eye is twitching!!1! Hester \u00a0responds:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>\u201cThou knowest that I was frank with thee. I felt no love, nor feigned any. Straight up.&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I added that last part. FIGHT THE PATRIARCHY, HESTER!<\/p>\n<p>After a \u00a0few more unsolicited comments (including \u00a0that even though he WILL find out who the father is, he \u00a0definitely won&#8217;t seek revenge, oh no no no, definitely not *<a href=\"https:\/\/theshovingbuddies.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/06\/nic-cage-face-off.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Nicholas Cage smile<\/a>*), Hester \u00a0asks, observantly:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>\u201cWhy not announce thyself openly, and cast me off at once?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>\u201cIt may be,\u201d he replied, \u201cbecause I will not encounter the dishonor that besmirches the husband of a faithless woman. It may be for other reasons.&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.<em>WHAT<\/em> OTHER REASONS? Hester is calm about this but I suspect she has no choice, due to being trapped in a prison cell with a \u00a0<em>Criminal Minds<\/em> suspect. The last line she \u00a0manages before he leaves \u00a0is, paraphrased: &#8220;WHY DO YOU KEEP LOOKING AT ME \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reactiongifs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/mmhm.gif\" target=\"_blank\">LIKE THAT<\/a>?&#8221; We don&#8217;t get an \u00a0answer because <a href=\"http:\/\/aesopagency.com\/app\/uploads\/2011\/07\/cliffhanger.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">the chapter ends here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chapter 5: Hester at Her Needle<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hester is finally free to leave the prison, under the condition that she must wear the scarlet letter for the rest of her life. In place of getting the hell out of there, \u00a0she \u00a0decides to stick around. There \u00a0are two \u00a0reasons for this. The first is \u00a0that she feels her life has been &#8216;too deeply marked&#8217; by the incident to leave, whatever that means. The \u00a0second reason is that she \u00a0doesn&#8217;t want to leave her baby daddy (WHOOOO?) on this side of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n<p>Hester \u00a0earns a living by doing embroidery commissions for the whole town, who first recognized \u00a0her talent back when she <a href=\"https:\/\/67.media.tumblr.com\/64e677024921c7aee13a323996a72879\/tumblr_n2tph6Oe731twu9tko1_500.gif\" target=\"_blank\">emerged<\/a> \u00a0from the jailhouse with the \u00a0elaborate \u00a0handmade \u00a0<em>A<\/em> \u00a0on her dress. \u00a0I \u00a0having a feeling \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/U0F0vK4.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">she did this on purpose<\/a> \u00a0(!).<\/p>\n<p>There is virtually no dialogue in this chapter, but that doesn&#8217;t stop Nathaniel Hawthorne from telling us in PAINSTAKING \u00a0detail that Hester has, over the course of a few years, <a href=\"https:\/\/s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com\/736x\/f9\/60\/ed\/f960edff9acd21732621edcc556cebbf.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Boo Radley-d<\/a> \u00a0herself into \u00a0a shack in the woods. She&#8217;s lonely there. You can&#8217;t outsource embroidery work to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cartoondollemporium.com\/disney\/cinderella7.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">anthropomorphic \u00a0field mice<\/a> \u00a0in Puritan New England \u00a0and she has no other friend prospects. Plus, children keep daring each other to peek in her \u00a0window and get themselves spooked like she&#8217;s some kind of witch.<em> Is<\/em> she a witch? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g\" target=\"_blank\">I don&#8217;t know.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hester is strictly \u00a0forbidden from embroidering wedding veils, because the town \u00a0harlot doing needlework for chaste brides would be an absolute scandal. The town \u00a0harlot \u00a0working on military sashes, ballgowns, funeral garbs, baby clothes, gloves of state officials, and the Governor&#8217;s collar doesn&#8217;t seem to be a problem, however. I know what you&#8217;re thinking: <em>Didn&#8217;t the \u00a0Puritans only wear, like, shapeless \u00a0black shrouds \u00a0and repurposed potato sacks? \u00a0<\/em>I thought so too.<\/p>\n<p>The next few pages are about \u00a0the daily torture of wearing the scarlet letter. She&#8217;s feeling pretty alienated at this point. Like, clergymen give improvised \u00a0adultery sermons when she comes \u00a0to their church and children chuck \u00a0pebbles in her general direction. This is one of \u00a0my favorite lines so far because \u00a0it&#8217;s both a beautifully crafted sentence and a summary \u00a0of <em>Mean Girls<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Dames of elevated rank, likewise, whose doors she entered in the way of her occupation, were accustomed to distill drops of bitterness into her heart; sometimes through that alchemy of quiet malice, by which women can concoct a subtle poison from ordinary trifles; and sometimes, also, by a coarser expression, that fell upon the sufferer&#8217;s defenseless breast like a rough blow upon an ulcerated wound.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"giphy-embed\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/LNHh2jatgredq\" width=\"480\" height=\"243\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/mean-girls-reaction-you-cant-sit-with-us-LNHh2jatgredq\">via GIPHY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s feeling like Purgatory, population: ONE over here, but Hester is \u00a0not the only person \u00a0in the history of this town who&#8217;s cheated on a spouse. She begins to get a sixth sense whenever an adulterer passes her by in the street (CC: Marvel).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chapter 6: Pearl<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first thing we learn is that Hester names her daughter &#8220;Pearl&#8221; because she was a &#8220;great price,\u2014purchased with all she had,\u2014her mother&#8217;s only treasure!&#8221; My only treasure is a very specific \u00a0brand of peanut butter, so heaven \u00a0help me if I have to give that up to bear children.<\/p>\n<p>Three-year-old \u00a0Pearl has the &#8220;fiery lustre&#8221; and warfare of her \u00a0mother&#8217;s spirit. This translates to: \u00a0throwing temper tantrums, having \u00a0imaginary friends, and screaming &#8220;I have no Heavenly Father!&#8221; in public. The town \u00a0immediately deems her an &#8220;imp of evil&#8221; for these things, which I think is pretty \u00a0fair from \u00a0a Puritan perspective.<\/p>\n<p>One day, Hester gets fed up with Pearl&#8217;s \u00a0antics and asks, &#8220;Child, what art thou?&#8221; Pearl replies \u00a0by demanding to know more about her origins. Let me remind you that this child is three. When I was three I threw \u00a0Cheerios at my sister&#8217;s \u00a0head, took a nap, and called it a day.<\/p>\n<p>This kid is smart. Not <a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/thecut\/2016\/09\/see-all-the-red-carpet-looks-from-the-2016-emmys\/slideshow\/2016\/09\/18\/2016_emmy_awardsredcarpet\/GettyImages-607569954_master\/\" target=\"_blank\">close-up-magic-on-the-red-carpet smart<\/a>, but definitely no-qualms-about-committing-heresy-to-get-your-way smart.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thoughts\/conclusions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>So far, all of this has been exposition. I don&#8217;t know about you, but some action might be nice.<\/li>\n<li>Luckily I&#8217;m a terrible person and flipped ahead, so \u00a0I saw that in the next chapter there is PLOT and DIALOGUE \u00a0and the \u00a0phrase \u00a0&#8220;demon origins.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>My main concern right now is \u00a0the whereabouts of Roger Chillingworth.<\/li>\n<li>Never \u00a0underestimate a woman who is capable of running an \u00a0Etsy empire from a prison cell.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Find the next chapter and every installment \u00a0of Blogging Scarlet Letter <a href=\"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/31\/blogging-the-scarlet-letter\/\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>, and an index of all our \u00a0Blogging the Classics titles <a href=\"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/2016\/07\/18\/blogging-the-classics-index-page\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Previously in Blogging The Scarlet Letter, Hester was \u00a0being \u00a0escorted back into the prison after \u00a0refusing \u00a0to tell anyone who the father of her baby is. Chapter 4: The Interview Hester is panicked because the   <a class=\"continue-reading\" href=\"#\"><span class=\"continue-text\">continue reading<\/span><svg class=\"continue-icon\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" alt=\"\">\n    <path fill=\"#007acd\" fill-rule=\"nonzero\" d=\"M13.442 5.558L19.885 12l-6.443 6.442-.884-.884 4.934-4.934L4 12.625v-1.25l13.492-.001-4.934-4.932.884-.884z\"><\/path>\n  <\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[22734,395,394,22709,22735,868,3049,22988,22873,332,643],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392147"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}