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In
her
late
singular
interview
with
Mr.
Dimmesdale
,
Hester
Prynne
was
shocked
at
the
condition
to
which
she
found
the
clergyman
reduced
.
His
nerve
seemed
absolutely
destroyed
.
His
moral
force
was
abased
into
more
than
childish
weakness
.
It
grovelled
helpless
on
the
ground
,
even
while
his
intellectual
faculties
retained
their
pristine
strength
,
or
had
perhaps
acquired
a
morbid
energy
,
which
disease
only
could
have
given
them
.
With
her
knowledge
of
a
train
of
circumstances
hidden
from
all
others
,
she
could
readily
infer
that
,
besides
the
legitimate
action
of
his
own
conscience
,
a
terrible
machinery
had
been
brought
to
bear
,
and
was
still
operating
,
on
Mr.
Dimmesdale
's
well-being
and
repose
.
Knowing
what
this
poor
fallen
man
had
once
been
,
her
whole
soul
was
moved
by
the
shuddering
terror
with
which
he
had
appealed
to
her
--
the
outcast
woman
--
for
support
against
his
instinctively
discovered
enemy
.
She
decided
,
moreover
,
that
he
had
a
right
to
her
utmost
aid
.
Little
accustomed
,
in
her
long
seclusion
from
society
,
to
measure
her
ideas
of
right
and
wrong
by
any
standard
external
to
herself
,
Hester
saw
--
or
seemed
to
see
--
that
there
lay
a
responsibility
upon
her
in
reference
to
the
clergyman
,
which
she
owned
to
no
other
,
nor
to
the
whole
world
besides
.
The
links
that
united
her
to
the
rest
of
humankind
--
links
of
flowers
,
or
silk
,
or
gold
,
or
whatever
the
material
--
had
all
been
broken
.
Here
was
the
iron
link
of
mutual
crime
,
which
neither
he
nor
she
could
break
.
Like
all
other
ties
,
it
brought
along
with
it
its
obligations
.
Hester
Prynne
did
not
now
occupy
precisely
the
same
position
in
which
we
beheld
her
during
the
earlier
periods
of
her
ignominy
.
Years
had
come
and
gone
.
Pearl
was
now
seven
years
old
.
Her
mother
,
with
the
scarlet
letter
on
her
breast
,
glittering
in
its
fantastic
embroidery
,
had
long
been
a
familiar
object
to
the
townspeople
.
As
is
apt
to
be
the
case
when
a
person
stands
out
in
any
prominence
before
the
community
,
and
,
at
the
same
time
,
interferes
neither
with
public
nor
individual
interests
and
convenience
,
a
species
of
general
regard
had
ultimately
grown
up
in
reference
to
Hester
Prynne
.
It
is
to
the
credit
of
human
nature
that
,
except
where
its
selfishness
is
brought
into
play
,
it
loves
more
readily
than
it
hates
.
Hatred
,
by
a
gradual
and
quiet
process
,
will
even
be
transformed
to
love
,
unless
the
change
be
impeded
by
a
continually
new
irritation
of
the
original
feeling
of
hostility
.
In
this
matter
of
Hester
Prynne
there
was
neither
irritation
nor
irksomeness
.
She
never
battled
with
the
public
,
but
submitted
uncomplainingly
to
its
worst
usage
;
she
made
no
claim
upon
it
in
requital
for
what
she
suffered
;
she
did
not
weigh
upon
its
sympathies
.
Then
,
also
,
the
blameless
purity
of
her
life
during
all
these
years
in
which
she
had
been
set
apart
to
infamy
was
reckoned
largely
in
her
favour
.
With
nothing
now
to
lose
,
in
the
sight
of
mankind
,
and
with
no
hope
,
and
seemingly
no
wish
,
of
gaining
anything
,
it
could
only
be
a
genuine
regard
for
virtue
that
had
brought
back
the
poor
wanderer
to
its
paths
.
It
was
perceived
,
too
,
that
while
Hester
never
put
forward
even
the
humblest
title
to
share
in
the
world
's
privileges
--
further
than
to
breathe
the
common
air
and
earn
daily
bread
for
little
Pearl
and
herself
by
the
faithful
labour
of
her
hands
--
she
was
quick
to
acknowledge
her
sisterhood
with
the
race
of
man
whenever
benefits
were
to
be
conferred
.
None
so
ready
as
she
to
give
of
her
little
substance
to
every
demand
of
poverty
,
even
though
the
bitter-hearted
pauper
threw
back
a
gibe
in
requital
of
the
food
brought
regularly
to
his
door
,
or
the
garments
wrought
for
him
by
the
fingers
that
could
have
embroidered
a
monarch
's
robe
.
None
so
self-devoted
as
Hester
when
pestilence
stalked
through
the
town
.
In
all
seasons
of
calamity
,
indeed
,
whether
general
or
of
individuals
,
the
outcast
of
society
at
once
found
her
place
.
She
came
,
not
as
a
guest
,
but
as
a
rightful
inmate
,
into
the
household
that
was
darkened
by
trouble
,
as
if
its
gloomy
twilight
were
a
medium
in
which
she
was
entitled
to
hold
intercourse
with
her
fellow-creature
There
glimmered
the
embroidered
letter
,
with
comfort
in
its
unearthly
ray
.
Elsewhere
the
token
of
sin
,
it
was
the
taper
of
the
sick
chamber
.
It
had
even
thrown
its
gleam
,
in
the
sufferer
's
bard
extremity
,
across
the
verge
of
time
.
It
had
shown
him
where
to
set
his
foot
,
while
the
light
of
earth
was
fast
becoming
dim
,
and
ere
the
light
of
futurity
could
reach
him
.
In
such
emergencies
Hester
's
nature
showed
itself
warm
and
rich
--
a
well-spring
of
human
tenderness
,
unfailing
to
every
real
demand
,
and
inexhaustible
by
the
largest
.
Her
breast
,
with
its
badge
of
shame
,
was
but
the
softer
pillow
for
the
head
that
needed
one
.
She
was
self-ordained
a
Sister
of
Mercy
,
or
,
we
may
rather
say
,
the
world
's
heavy
hand
had
so
ordained
her
,
when
neither
the
world
nor
she
looked
forward
to
this
result
.
The
letter
was
the
symbol
of
her
calling
.
Such
helpfulness
was
found
in
her
--
so
much
power
to
do
,
and
power
to
sympathise
--
that
many
people
refused
to
interpret
the
scarlet
A
by
its
original
signification
.
They
said
that
it
meant
Abel
,
so
strong
was
Hester
Prynne
,
with
a
woman
's
strength
.
It
was
only
the
darkened
house
that
could
contain
her
.
When
sunshine
came
again
,
she
was
not
there
.
Her
shadow
had
faded
across
the
threshold
.
The
helpful
inmate
had
departed
,
without
one
backward
glance
to
gather
up
the
meed
of
gratitude
,
if
any
were
in
the
hearts
of
those
whom
she
had
served
so
zealously
.
Meeting
them
in
the
street
,
she
never
raised
her
head
to
receive
their
greeting
.
If
they
were
resolute
to
accost
her
,
she
laid
her
finger
on
the
scarlet
letter
,
and
passed
on
.
This
might
be
pride
,
but
was
so
like
humility
,
that
it
produced
all
the
softening
influence
of
the
latter
quality
on
the
public
mind
.
The
public
is
despotic
in
its
temper
;
it
is
capable
of
denying
common
justice
when
too
strenuously
demanded
as
a
right
;
but
quite
as
frequently
it
awards
more
than
justice
,
when
the
appeal
is
made
,
as
despots
love
to
have
it
made
,
entirely
to
its
generosity
.
Interpreting
Hester
Prynne
's
deportment
as
an
appeal
of
this
nature
,
society
was
inclined
to
show
its
former
victim
a
more
benign
countenance
than
she
cared
to
be
favoured
with
,
or
,
perchance
,
than
she
deserved
.
The
rulers
,
and
the
wise
and
learned
men
of
the
community
,
were
longer
in
acknowledging
the
influence
of
Hester
's
good
qualities
than
the
people
.
The
prejudices
which
they
shared
in
common
with
the
latter
were
fortified
in
themselves
by
an
iron
frame-work
of
reasoning
,
that
made
it
a
far
tougher
labour
to
expel
them
.
Day
by
day
,
nevertheless
,
their
sour
and
rigid
wrinkles
were
relaxing
into
something
which
,
in
the
due
course
of
years
,
might
grow
to
be
an
expression
of
almost
benevolence
.
Thus
it
was
with
the
men
of
rank
,
on
whom
their
eminent
position
imposed
the
guardianship
of
the
public
morals
.
Individuals
in
private
life
,
meanwhile
,
had
quite
forgiven
Hester
Prynne
for
her
frailty
;
nay
,
more
,
they
had
begun
to
look
upon
the
scarlet
letter
as
the
token
,
not
of
that
one
sin
for
which
she
had
borne
so
long
and
dreary
a
penance
,
but
of
her
many
good
deeds
since
.
"
Do
you
see
that
woman
with
the
embroidered
badge
?
"
they
would
say
to
strangers
.
"
It
is
our
Hester
--
the
town
's
own
Hester
--
who
is
so
kind
to
the
poor
,
so
helpful
to
the
sick
,
so
comfortable
to
the
afflicted
!
"
Then
,
it
is
true
,
the
propensity
of
human
nature
to
tell
the
very
worst
of
itself
,
when
embodied
in
the
person
of
another
,
would
constrain
them
to
whisper
the
black
scandal
of
bygone
years
.
It
was
none
the
less
a
fact
,
however
,
that
in
the
eyes
of
the
very
men
who
spoke
thus
,
the
scarlet
letter
had
the
effect
of
the
cross
on
a
nun
's
bosom
.
It
imparted
to
the
wearer
a
kind
of
sacredness
,
which
enabled
her
to
walk
securely
amid
all
peril
.
Had
she
fallen
among
thieves
,
it
would
have
kept
her
safe
.
It
was
reported
,
and
believed
by
many
,
that
an
Indian
had
drawn
his
arrow
against
the
badge
,
and
that
the
missile
struck
it
,
and
fell
harmless
to
the
ground
.
The
effect
of
the
symbol
--
or
rather
,
of
the
position
in
respect
to
society
that
was
indicated
by
it
--
on
the
mind
of
Hester
Prynne
herself
was
powerful
and
peculiar
.
All
the
light
and
graceful
foliage
of
her
character
had
been
withered
up
by
this
red-hot
brand
,
and
had
long
ago
fallen
away
,
leaving
a
bare
and
harsh
outline
,
which
might
have
been
repulsive
had
she
possessed
friends
or
companions
to
be
repelled
by
it
.
Even
the
attractiveness
of
her
person
had
undergone
a
similar
change
.
It
might
be
partly
owing
to
the
studied
austerity
of
her
dress
,
and
partly
to
the
lack
of
demonstration
in
her
manners
.
It
was
a
sad
transformation
,
too
,
that
her
rich
and
luxuriant
hair
had
either
been
cut
off
,
or
was
so
completely
hidden
by
a
cap
,
that
not
a
shining
lock
of
it
ever
once
gushed
into
the
sunshine
.
It
was
due
in
part
to
all
these
causes
,
but
still
more
to
something
else
,
that
there
seemed
to
be
no
longer
anything
in
Hester
's
face
for
Love
to
dwell
upon
;
nothing
in
Hester
's
form
,
though
majestic
and
statue
like
,
that
Passion
would
ever
dream
of
clasping
in
its
embrace
;
nothing
in
Hester
's
bosom
to
make
it
ever
again
the
pillow
of
Affection
.
Some
attribute
had
departed
from
her
,
the
permanence
of
which
had
been
essential
to
keep
her
a
woman
.
Such
is
frequently
the
fate
,
and
such
the
stern
development
,
of
the
feminine
character
and
person
,
when
the
woman
has
encountered
,
and
lived
through
,
an
experience
of
peculiar
severity
.
If
she
be
all
tenderness
,
she
will
die
.
If
she
survive
,
the
tenderness
will
either
be
crushed
out
of
her
,
or
--
and
the
outward
semblance
is
the
same
--
crushed
so
deeply
into
her
heart
that
it
can
never
show
itself
more
.
The
latter
is
perhaps
the
truest
theory
.
She
who
has
once
been
a
woman
,
and
ceased
to
be
so
,
might
at
any
moment
become
a
woman
again
,
if
there
were
only
the
magic
touch
to
effect
the
transformation
.
We
shall
see
whether
Hester
Prynne
were
ever
afterwards
so
touched
and
so
transfigured
.
