Special K

The Scarlet Letter

Ok, my first agenda item was truly terrible. So since no one read it anyway, I'm making a new one.

I hate to pull directly from class discussion (and therefore ruining the entire idea of an "agenda item") but it was a good discussion. And something that I was thinking about earlier. As Jay mentioned in class, why didn't Hester say the name of the child's father in "The Scarlet Letter"?

My initial reacion when I read Hester's refusal to say the name of her lover was shock. Of course, never being in such a situation, I do not know how I could reaction however I can venture a pretty good guess, "Him! It was him! Now take this ugly letter off my shirt!" Most people (at least in today's era) would announce the name of the other sinner in hopes of getting a lighter sentence. Yet Hester kept silent, even saying, "Never!...It is too deeply branded...And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!" She is going to take the entire blame for a crime that she shared with another.

Perhaps Hester refused to reveil the name because she knew it would not help her in any way. In the Puritan times, a man's word was better than a woman's, especially in such a case. She could insist a man was her lover but if he denies it the court will believe him more because he is a man. There is no way to test evidence otherwise. She understood that telling the name would not help her case any, so why bother.

Of course, this being a fine work of literature and all, there is a deeper meaning to her reluctance, I'm sure. At the moment, it shows her character and her strength. She has sinned, she understands, and she will endure it alone.