"But she named the infant 'Pearl,' as being of great price, -purchased with all she had, -her mother's only treasure!" (81).
What is this "great price" that the author is talking about? Of course Hester did not pay for her child but there were many things that Hester had to give up for her. Firstly, Hester had to give up her pride. Being an adulterer was not something to be proud of then, and by keeping the baby Hester decided to put her pride aside and basically allowed others to look down upon her. Hester accepted the shame and the dirty looks from everyone because in the end, she had her baby, and that was the only thing she needed.
"In all her intercourse with society, however, there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it" (77).
As we found out in the text, Hester Prynne is a seamstress and she basically made everything for everyone in the town. Although, if it were someone else, this would make her a very important person to the town, that was not the case for Hester. Hester, because of the sin she committed, could not be accepted by the town's people. The fact that Hester was actually worried about being accepted was surprise because since the beginning of the novel, she has always seemed to embrace her scarlet letter, which is kind of like embracing her sin.
Is it just a coincidence or is every man that Hester meets supposed to make her feel uncomfortable?
Is this foreshadowing the fact that she was abused rather than have committed adultery willingly?
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