Women in Town (pages 44-47)

Character Sketches: Women in Town (Group 3)

For homework, I asked you to mark initial descriptions/depictions of the following characters.

In pairs/threes, get down as many traits, behaviors, physical details as possible. Be sure to include at least 2 quotations. Otherwise, you may summarize.

WOMEN IN TOWN

Group 3: pg. 44-47

“The women who were now standing about the prison-door stood within less than half a century of the period when the man-like Elizabeth had been the not altogether unsuitable representative of the sex. They were her countrywomen: and the beef and ale of their native land, with a moral diet not a whit more refined, entered largely into their composition” (45).
Excited about thought of punishment

Harsh towards other women

“At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead. Madame Hester would have winced at that, I warrant me. But she—the naughty baggage” (46).
“This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die; Is there not law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute- book. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray" (46).
Jealous

Uptight

Religious

Nit-picky

Mob mentality

Hawthorny Romance:

In your section, find any examples you can of romantic elements (going by Hawthorne’s definition of a romance novel).

“It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself”
“because its existence, heretofore, had brought it acquaintance only with the grey twilight of a dungeon, or other darksome apartment of the prison”(47).

Hawthorny Themes:

What central themes (from any of the Wordles) come up in your section?

Heart, HEART, HEART

Light/Dark

Religion

Ugliness

Death

Birth

Mother

Guilty

Sunshine

Ancestry
Shadow