{"id":1393865,"date":"2016-10-12T16:45:25","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T20:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/?p=1393865"},"modified":"2017-02-23T16:23:43","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T21:23:43","slug":"blogging-the-scarlet-letter-part-7-chapters-13-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/blogging-the-scarlet-letter-part-7-chapters-13-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogging The Scarlet Letter<\/i> Part 7 (Chapters 13-15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Last we heard<\/a>, Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth rendez-vous-ed under a meteor shower. It didn’t go well.<\/p>\n

Find every installment here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Chapter 13: Another View of Hester<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pearl is seven now, so she’s at peak cheekiness. Since Pearl was born, \u00a0Hester has devoted \u00a0her life to charity: she brings food and clothing to the poor even though she is poor herself, she nurses the sick back to health even if they continue to \u00a0call her a hussy, she never fights or asks for sympathy. In fact,<\/p>\n

Such helpfulness was found in her,\u2014so much power to do, and power to sympathize,\u2014that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I think I just felt \u00a0my ovaries high-five each other.<\/p>\n

The thing is, Hester doesn’t care what the town thinks. She’s really come \u00a0into her own at this point and I’m proud of her. I mean, you<\/em> \u00a0try dealing with \u00a0a kid, a career, a steady \u00a0flow of \u00a0condescension from \u00a0the patriarchy, a secret husband with malice in his heart, a lover who’s slowly crumpling \u00a0from the inside out, and the vague but constant \u00a0threat of being burned at the stake all at once.<\/a><\/p>\n

In her solitude over the years, she’s \u00a0had a lot of time to think \u00a0about how to \u00a0singlehandedly destroy the patriarchy. I mean not actually, but pretty close. She’s taking “quiet and brooding” to a whole new level (if you are a \u00a0Mia Thermopolis<\/a> \u00a0on the outside but \u00a0a Carl Sagan<\/a> on the inside, this one’s for you):<\/p>\n

It is remarkable, that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society… So it seemed to be with Hester.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This seems like a good time to deliver \u00a0Six \u00a0Direct Quotes That Are Also Statements About Being a Woman in Today’s Society<\/em>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. “Everything was against her. The world was hostile.<\/em>” \u00a0> \u00a0Mhm.<\/li>\n
  2. “Her matronly frame was trodden under all men’s feet.” \u00a0<\/em>> This is from a previous chapter but I needed to bring it up \u00a0again because: mhm.<\/li>\n
  3. “As a first step, the whole system of society is to be torn down, and built up anew. Then, the very nature of the opposite sex, or its long hereditary habit, which has become like nature, is to be essentially modified, before woman can be allowed to assume what seems a fair and suitable position.” > Why has this yet to happen \u00a0150 years after it was written tho?<\/li>\n
  4. “At times, a fearful doubt strove to possess her soul.” > \u00a0How I feel when I can sense someone is about to mansplain.<\/li>\n
  5. “There was wild and ghastly scenery all around her, and a home and comfort nowhere.” > How I feel while being mansplained to.<\/li>\n
  6. “She discerns, it may be, a hopeless task before her.” \u00a0<\/em>> \u00a0How I feel when I try to explain \u00a0to said person the way in which \u00a0they are mansplaining.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n