Question

AWARDING A MEDAL

Answer 1

Chapter II: The Marketplace

In fact, this scaffold constituted a portion of a penal machine, which now, for two or three generations past, has been merely historical and [traditional] among us, but was held, in the old time, to be as effectual an agent, in the promotion of good citizenship, as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists of France. It was, in short, the platform of the pillory; and above it rose the framework of that instrument of discipline, so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it up to the public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy1 was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron. There can be no outrage, methinks, against our common nature—whatever be the delinquencies of the individual—no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame; as it was the essence of this punishment to do. In Hester Prynne's instance, however, as not infrequently in other cases, her sentence bore that she should stand a certain time upon the platform, but without undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head, the proneness to which was the most devilish characteristic of this ugly engine. Knowing well her part, she ascended a flight of wooden steps, and was thus displayed to the surrounding multitude, at about the height of a man's shoulders above the street…

The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering at it. The witnesses of Hester Prynne's disgrace had not yet passed beyond their simplicity… Even had there been a disposition to turn the matter into ridicule, it must have been repressed and overpowered by the solemn presence of men no less dignified than the governor, and several of his counsellors, a judge, a general, and the ministers of the town, all of whom sat or stood in a balcony of the meeting-house, looking down upon the platform. When such personages could constitute a part of the spectacle, without risking the majesty, or reverence of rank and office, it was safely to be inferred that the infliction of a legal sentence would have an earnest and effectual meaning. Accordingly, the crowd was sombre and grave. The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentrated at her [scarlet A]. It was almost intolerable to be borne. Of an impulsive and passionate nature, she had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely, wreaking itself in every variety of insult; but there was a quality so much more terrible in the solemn mood of the popular mind, that she longed rather to behold all those rigid countenances contorted with scornful merriment, and herself the object. Had a roar of laughter burst from the multitude—each man, each woman, each little shrill-voiced child, contributing their individual parts—Hester Prynne might have repaid them all with a bitter and disdainful smile. But, under the leaden infliction which it was her doom to endure, she felt, at moments, as if she must needs shriek out with the full power of her lungs, and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the ground, or else go mad at once.

Yet there were intervals when the whole scene, in which she was the most conspicuous object, seemed to vanish from her eyes, or, at least, glimmered indistinctly before them, like a mass of imperfectly shaped and spectral images. Her mind, and especially her memory, was preternaturally active, and kept bringing up other scenes than this roughly hewn street of a little town, on the edge of the western wilderness: other faces than were lowering upon her from beneath the brims of those steeple-crowned hats. Reminiscences, the most trifling and immaterial, passages of infancy and school-days, sports, childish quarrels, and the little domestic traits of her maiden years, came swarming back upon her, intermingled with recollections of whatever was gravest in her subsequent life; one picture precisely as vivid as another; as if all were of similar importance, or all alike a play. Possibly, it was an instinctive device of her spirit to relieve itself by the exhibition of these phantasmagoric forms, from the cruel weight and hardness of the reality.

Be that as it might, the scaffold of the pillory was a point of view that revealed to Hester Prynne the entire track along which she had been treading, since her happy infancy. Standing on that miserable eminence, she saw again her native village, in Old England, and her paternal home: a decayed house of grey stone, with a poverty-stricken aspect, but retaining a half obliterated shield of arms over the portal, in token of antique gentility. She saw her father's face, with its bold brow, and reverend white beard that flowed over the old-fashioned Elizabethan ruff; her mother's, too, with the look of heedful and anxious love which it always wore in her remembrance, and which, even since her death, had so often laid the impediment of a gentle remonstrance in her daughter's pathway. She saw her own face, glowing with girlish beauty, and illuminating all the interior of the dusky mirror in which she had been wont to gaze at it. There she beheld another countenance, of a man well stricken in years, a pale, thin, scholar-like visage, with eyes dim and bleared by the lamp-light that had served them to pore over many ponderous books. Yet those same bleared optics had a strange, penetrating power, when it was their owner's purpose to read the human soul. This figure of the study and the cloister, as Hester Prynne's womanly fancy failed not to recall, was slightly deformed, with the left shoulder a trifle higher than the right… Lastly, in lieu of these shifting scenes, came back the rude market-place of the Puritan, settlement, with all the townspeople assembled, and levelling their stern regards at Hester Prynne—yes, at herself—who stood on the scaffold of the pillory, an infant on her arm, and the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.

Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes these were her realities—all else had vanished!
1Deep humiliation and disgrace

Part A: How do Hester's family memories contribute to the development of the theme?

Please fill in blank 1 using A, B, C, or D.

A. They allow the reader a short break from the tension to focus on minor details.
B. They create a greater sense of the injustice of her punishment which creates irony.
C. They create a contradiction between the circumstance of her looming parenthood.
D. They suggest the present is more painful as her childhood was rather ideal.

Part B:
Select two quotations that help develop the answer to Part A and enter your selections in blanks 2 and 3 provided, making sure your answers are in alphabetical order.

E. …but without undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head
F. The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt
G. Yet there were intervals when the whole scene, …seemed to vanish from her eyes
H. Possibly, it was an instinctive device of her spirit to relieve itself
I. …the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.
J. She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast that it sent forth a cry…

Answer 2

Blank 1 I think it's A

Answer 3

I think 2 is G and 3 is F

Answer 4

@mitfostem005 @hba @Jonathan1997

Answer 5

@yueyue @washcaps @willie12345678 @RC_CA @tester97 @ILoVeMaTh3 @AngelWilliams16 @Smexi_Girl @derpface @Figureskater120 @GrimTheReaper @hartnn @jokerbyrd123 @KattGirl14 @lolo5656 @zamzamnikole @crystelle @Victor23 @blah124 @Nurali @mlb004

Answer 6

Err, why did I get mentioned? :L

Answer 7

Just cuz I need someone to tell me if my answers are correct. I think they are but I want to be sure

Answer 8

Plus somepeople have said that you are a great helper

Answer 9

That's bull because I haven't helped anyone. >.>

Answer 10

I'll try and help anyhow, though.

Answer 11

Thank you!

Answer 12

dang d00d dis is tooooooooooooo much reading try making it shorter so that i can help you.

Answer 13

nope

Answer 14

I actually kinda think 1 is B. But I'm not entirely sure.

Answer 15

Have you read scarlet letter? That is what this is. This is a portion of chapter 2. Basically, a woman (Hester) has comitted adultry. She is forced to go stand out in public on a high platform so everyone can see her. Back in the day, this was punishment and it was a huge shame to commit adultry so everyone in town would come and stare at you and make fun of you and laugh at you and frown at you and basically that dream where you in the crowd and everyone is starring and laughing at you comes true. She begins daydreaming and thinking of her memories which make take away some of her tention and then she snapps back to her reality.

Answer 16

No, I haven't read it, but I know the basic storyline.

Answer 17

nope sorryi havent read scarlet letter

Answer 18

Hmm, rereading it, I think you may be right on number 1.

Answer 19

it could be b. Now I am not sure lol

Answer 20

So it is A?

Answer 21

I'm not sure. :x

Answer 22

okay. Thank you!

Answer 23

I guess I will go with A for 1. Do you know if my last 2 are right?

Answer 24

okay so my answers for blank 2 and 3 are:
2)F. The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt
3) J. She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast that it sent forth a cry…

Answer 25

I am going to post another one with my answers after I close this question. I won't tag you guys though