Chapters 3-4

Interesting little section. Didn't think that the hubby would even be a part of the initial plot. He sent her forward to Boston and she committed adultery. He doesn't have much self - esteem if he thinks that a man like himself would never make a woman like her happy. He possibly set her up for failure.

Hester is of strong character. For some "odd" reason she doesn't want to get this accomplice in trouble. Chillingsworth (appropriate name chill) says that he will figure it out by the way Hester acts in the future. He told her he was going to do so. Hester should be smart enough to understand this.

Nice beginning. Not what I expected. Pretty interesting.

I do like the Puritan times.

I was surprised that Chillingsworth was so weak that he would rather want revenge than the truth. He boasted so much that he was such a good Puritan and followed the ways.

I thought it too convenient that Chillingworth appeared just in time to see his wifes ignomy. he left her to her onw devices for TWO years! how was she to know he was even living? He was greedy to marry her in his autumn years when he was much older and not physically handsome. Bt it was also silly of her to consent to the marriage. i got the idea that if the townfolk knew for sure that her husband was still living they would have killed hester, but since he could have been at the bottom of the sea, she might not have been 'married'. thus her lesser sentance. I thought chilingworth sounded disgusting but I also thought the description of the minister, whom i suspected as the father of hesters child, as weak.

I read later in the book that she married because of economical and social class pressure. This would be to her benefit "marry up" as we are learning. Remember he was a scholar.