The Scarlet Letter: Chapter I

Image: "Standing on the Miserable Eminence" from Project Gutenberg.
For more on Marry Hallock Footes illustrations of The Scarlet Letter, click here.

Have you ever been publicly embarrassed? What about made to feel bad for something you've done, even privately? None of us may ever be put up on a platform to be shamed in front of our whole town, but that's the situation Hester Prynne finds herself in when we meet her in the first chapter of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. After reading Chapters I and II, respond by discussing how you think Hester might be feeling during this scene. What descriptors and clues does Hawthorne give the reader to tell you what kind of person she is? Have you or a friend (no names) ever experienced something that felt like this, even if it was this extreme?