"[The] rose-bush [was] imagined to offer [its] fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he went forth to his doom" (46).
When Hester walked out of the prison door, "those who had before known her, and had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished [...] to perceive how her beauty shone out" (51). Hester's beauty can symbolize the work of Nature and the rosebush. Nobody was expecting Hester to look as elegant as she did. The only reason that can justify this is the mysterious rosebush that sits next to the prison door. Hester looked shameless and haughty to the townspeople, but "she [...] felt it in her heart" (51). Spending countless hours in a dark and dismal room would give any person time to mull over their wrongdoings.
'"People say," said another, "that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation"' (48-49).
Reverend Master Dimmesdale sounds like Parris from The Crucible. Parris did not want to look bad, knowing Abigail was at fault for dancing in the woods. Not only is Hester putting shame to Dimmesdale, but she is also putting shame on her "infant [who] was to redeem the world" (53). Her baby will grow up, knowing that the only reason he was born was because of his mother's infidelity. He is merely "one token of [Hester's] shame" (50). Hester ruined her father's name by standing on the podium, wearing the scarlet letter. She also angered the old women, who believed she "brought shame upon [them] all, and ought to die" (49). Now that Hester has ruined her reputation, will there be a chance of forgiveness?
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