-
Главная
-
- Книги
-
- Авторы
-
- Натаниэль Хоторн
-
- Алая буква
-
- Стр. 46/92
Для того чтобы воспользоваться озвучкой предложений, необходимо
Войти или зарегистрироваться
Озвучка предложений доступна при наличии PRO-доступа
Купить PRO-доступ
Much
of
the
marble
coldness
of
Hester
's
impression
was
to
be
attributed
to
the
circumstance
that
her
life
had
turned
,
in
a
great
measure
,
from
passion
and
feeling
to
thought
.
Standing
alone
in
the
world
--
alone
,
as
to
any
dependence
on
society
,
and
with
little
Pearl
to
be
guided
and
protected
--
alone
,
and
hopeless
of
retrieving
her
position
,
even
had
she
not
scorned
to
consider
it
desirable
--
she
cast
away
the
fragment
a
broken
chain
.
The
world
's
law
was
no
law
for
her
mind
.
It
was
an
age
in
which
the
human
intellect
,
newly
emancipated
,
had
taken
a
more
active
and
a
wider
range
than
for
many
centuries
before
.
Men
of
the
sword
had
overthrown
nobles
and
kings
.
Men
bolder
than
these
had
overthrown
and
rearranged
--
not
actually
,
but
within
the
sphere
of
theory
,
which
was
their
most
real
abode
--
the
whole
system
of
ancient
prejudice
,
wherewith
was
linked
much
of
ancient
principle
.
Hester
Prynne
imbibed
this
spirit
.
She
assumed
a
freedom
of
speculation
,
then
common
enough
on
the
other
side
of
the
Atlantic
,
but
which
our
forefathers
,
had
they
known
it
,
would
have
held
to
be
a
deadlier
crime
than
that
stigmatised
by
the
scarlet
letter
.
In
her
lonesome
cottage
,
by
the
seashore
,
thoughts
visited
her
such
as
dared
to
enter
no
other
dwelling
in
New
England
;
shadowy
guests
,
that
would
have
been
as
perilous
as
demons
to
their
entertainer
,
could
they
have
been
seen
so
much
as
knocking
at
her
door
.
It
is
remarkable
that
persons
who
speculate
the
most
boldly
often
conform
with
the
most
perfect
quietude
to
the
external
regulations
of
society
.
The
thought
suffices
them
,
without
investing
itself
in
the
flesh
and
blood
of
action
.
So
it
seemed
to
be
with
Hester
.
Yet
,
had
little
Pearl
never
come
to
her
from
the
spiritual
world
,
it
might
have
been
far
otherwise
.
Then
she
might
have
come
down
to
us
in
history
,
hand
in
hand
with
Ann
Hutchinson
,
as
the
foundress
of
a
religious
sect
.
She
might
,
in
one
of
her
phases
,
have
been
a
prophetess
.
She
might
,
and
not
improbably
would
,
have
suffered
death
from
the
stern
tribunals
of
the
period
,
for
attempting
to
undermine
the
foundations
of
the
Puritan
establishment
.
But
,
in
the
education
of
her
child
,
the
mother
's
enthusiasm
thought
had
something
to
wreak
itself
upon
.
Providence
,
in
the
person
of
this
little
girl
,
had
assigned
to
Hester
's
charge
,
the
germ
and
blossom
of
womanhood
,
to
be
cherished
and
developed
amid
a
host
of
difficulties
.
Everything
was
against
her
.
The
world
was
hostile
.
The
child
's
own
nature
had
something
wrong
in
it
which
continually
betokened
that
she
had
been
born
amiss
--
the
effluence
of
her
mother
's
lawless
passion
--
and
often
impelled
Hester
to
ask
,
in
bitterness
of
heart
,
whether
it
were
for
ill
or
good
that
the
poor
little
creature
had
been
born
at
all
.
Indeed
,
the
same
dark
question
often
rose
into
her
mind
with
reference
to
the
whole
race
of
womanhood
.
Was
existence
worth
accepting
even
to
the
happiest
among
them
?
As
concerned
her
own
individual
existence
,
she
had
long
ago
decided
in
the
negative
,
and
dismissed
the
point
as
settled
.
A
tendency
to
speculation
,
though
it
may
keep
women
quiet
,
as
it
does
man
,
yet
makes
her
sad
.
She
discerns
,
it
may
be
,
such
a
hopeless
task
before
her
.
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
.
Finally
,
all
other
difficulties
being
obviated
,
woman
can
not
take
advantage
of
these
preliminary
reforms
until
she
herself
shall
have
undergone
a
still
mightier
change
,
in
which
,
perhaps
,
the
ethereal
essence
,
wherein
she
has
her
truest
life
,
will
be
found
to
have
evaporated
.
A
woman
never
overcomes
these
problems
by
any
exercise
of
thought
.
They
are
not
to
be
solved
,
or
only
in
one
way
.
If
her
heart
chance
to
come
uppermost
,
they
vanish
.
Thus
Hester
Prynne
,
whose
heart
had
lost
its
regular
and
healthy
throb
,
wandered
without
a
clue
in
the
dark
labyrinth
of
mind
;
now
turned
aside
by
an
insurmountable
precipice
;
now
starting
back
from
a
deep
chasm
.
There
was
wild
and
ghastly
scenery
all
around
her
,
and
a
home
and
comfort
nowhere
.
At
times
a
fearful
doubt
strove
to
possess
her
soul
,
whether
it
were
not
better
to
send
Pearl
at
once
to
Heaven
,
and
go
herself
to
such
futurity
as
Eternal
Justice
should
provide
.
The
scarlet
letter
had
not
done
its
office
.
Now
,
however
,
her
interview
with
the
Reverend
Mr.
Dimmesdale
,
on
the
night
of
his
vigil
,
had
given
her
a
new
theme
of
reflection
,
and
held
up
to
her
an
object
that
appeared
worthy
of
any
exertion
and
sacrifice
for
its
attainment
.
She
had
witnessed
the
intense
misery
beneath
which
the
minister
struggled
,
or
,
to
speak
more
accurately
,
had
ceased
to
struggle
.
She
saw
that
he
stood
on
the
verge
of
lunacy
,
if
he
had
not
already
stepped
across
it
.
It
was
impossible
to
doubt
that
,
whatever
painful
efficacy
there
might
be
in
the
secret
sting
of
remorse
,
a
deadlier
venom
had
been
infused
into
it
by
the
hand
that
proffered
relief
.
A
secret
enemy
had
been
continually
by
his
side
,
under
the
semblance
of
a
friend
and
helper
,
and
had
availed
himself
of
the
opportunities
thus
afforded
for
tampering
with
the
delicate
springs
of
Mr.
Dimmesdale
's
nature
.
Hester
could
not
but
ask
herself
whether
there
had
not
originally
been
a
defect
of
truth
,
courage
,
and
loyalty
on
her
own
part
,
in
allowing
the
minister
to
be
thrown
into
position
where
so
much
evil
was
to
be
foreboded
and
nothing
auspicious
to
be
hoped
.
Her
only
justification
lay
in
the
fact
that
she
had
been
able
to
discern
no
method
of
rescuing
him
from
a
blacker
ruin
than
had
overwhelmed
herself
except
by
acquiescing
in
Roger
Chillingworth
's
scheme
of
disguise
.
Under
that
impulse
she
had
made
her
choice
,
and
had
chosen
,
as
it
now
appeared
,
the
more
wretched
alternative
of
the
two
.
She
determined
to
redeem
her
error
so
far
as
it
might
yet
be
possible
.
Strengthened
by
years
of
hard
and
solemn
trial
,
she
felt
herself
no
longer
so
inadequate
to
cope
with
Roger
Chillingworth
as
on
that
night
,
abased
by
sin
and
half-maddened
by
the
ignominy
that
was
still
new
,
when
they
had
talked
together
in
the
prison-chamber
She
had
climbed
her
way
since
then
to
a
higher
point
.
The
old
man
,
on
the
other
hand
,
had
brought
himself
nearer
to
her
level
,
or
,
perhaps
,
below
it
,
by
the
revenge
which
he
had
stooped
for
.
In
fine
,
Hester
Prynne
resolved
to
meet
her
former
husband
,
and
do
what
might
be
in
her
power
for
the
rescue
of
the
victim
on
whom
he
had
so
evidently
set
his
gripe
.
The
occasion
was
not
long
to
seek
.
One
afternoon
,
walking
with
Pearl
in
a
retired
part
of
the
peninsula
,
she
beheld
the
old
physician
with
a
basket
on
one
arm
and
a
staff
in
the
other
hand
,
stooping
along
the
ground
in
quest
of
roots
and
herbs
to
concoct
his
medicine
withal
.
