Chapter 19, "The Child at the Brook Side," follows "A Flood of Sunshine, " in which Hester and Dimmesdale are enthralled in the hope of a new and better life away from Boston. After this taste of joy in this "dark tale of human frailty" we are thrust into Chapter 19, which many critics have claimed to be the most painful of all chapters in the novel. What do you find especially heart-wrenching in this chapter? Give a quote or two that reveal this agony and explain how it/theymade you feel. (The deadline to post a response to this blog question is midnight, April 8, 2014.)
2 comments:
In this chapter, I found it very upsetting that Pearl asked her mother to put back on the scarlet letter. It is understandable, since Pearl has never seen her mother without it, but it is still agonizing to see her forced to once again be burdened by this piece of cloth. The quote from the book when Hester puts the letter back on is, "Hopefully, but a moment ago, as Hester had spoken of drowning in the deep sea, there was a sense of inevitable doom upon her, as she thus received back this deadly symbol from the hand of fate." Later it says, "As if there were a withering spell in the sad letter, he beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine; and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her." These two quotes explain the devastation that Hester feels after her short period of freedom from the scarlet letter comes to an end.
-KG B1
In Chapter 19, I thought it was a bit sad that Pearl washed away the kiss from Dimmesdale, until I realized she was right to wash it off. He had not held their hands on the scaffold at noontide and has been a coward about his fatherhood of Pearl. Of course, it is heart-wrenching to see Hester trying to push Pearl forward, to begin a relationship with Dimmesdale. For instance, "it was only by an exertion of force that her mother brought her upon him" (194). After the kiss, Pearl "broke away from her mother, and, running to the brook, stooped over it, and bathed her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss was quite washed off" (194). It is sad because until Dimmesdale comes terms with what he did and stands with Hester and Pearl on the scaffold, Pearl will never accept him.
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