Mistress Hibbins

Mistress Hibbins
Mistress HIbbins was an actual historic figure, she was a woman accused and hung of being a witch. Hawthorne (who is the author of the Scarlet Letter) included her for two main reasons; 1. She was the sister of the governor. 2. She presented a foil to Hester, allowing us the readers’ to understand Hester better

Hibbins could be on Hesters bad side. Hester could’ve easily gone to the bad side. Having being separated from her whole community, like Hibbins, she could become an angry and evil person, a servant of the devil. Basically it was all the things Mistress Hibbins is. When the town pushed Hester to the edge of the town- Hibbins stayed in the forest, so Hester was almost there. As a matter of fact Hester tried to tempt Hester into the forest, so she could sign her name with the so called “Black Man.”
Hibbins offered Hester friendship, connection- but Hester refused. This character allows us to see how devoted Hester is as a Christian. Despite her rough times, she will not turn to the dark side of society and herself.

WORK CITED: http://www.enotes.com/scarlet/ http://www.enotes.com/scarlet/themes
Narrator
The nameless narrator, shared some things with the book’s author, he takes a post as the “chief executive officer,” or surveyor of the Salem Witch House. ( For those readers who haven’t read the story, “Customs” are the taxes paid on foreign imports into a country; a “customhouse” is the building where taxes are paid) He found the establishment of the customhouse to be a run-down dirty place, his fellow workers in the customhouse had lifetime appointments secured safely by family connections. The narrator found them quite annoying because they were elderly so they would always tell him the same stories repeatedly.
As the narrators days passed by slowly in the customhouse, he tried to amuse himself since few ships would rarely go to Salem anymore. One rainy day he was scavenging for things and he came upon some documents in the buildings second story which was unoccupied. Looking through the pile, he noticed a manuscript that was bundled with a scarlet, gold-embroiled piece of cloth in the shape of a letter “A.” He examined the packet briefly and he found a scarlet badge, he held it to his chest but he immediately dropped it because he thought it seems to burn him. As he kept looking throughout the manuscript, he discovered it was the work of Jonathan Pue, who so happened to be a custom surveyor a hundred years earlier. An interest in local history led Pue to write a series of events taking place in the mid seventeenth century- a century before Pue’s time and two hundred years before the narrators. (dayummm)
The narrator hesitated about attempting to make a career out of writing because he was uneasy about it. But he put his feelings aside and he decided and write a fictional account of Hester Prynne’s experience, the facts weren’t exactly precise but he believed that it would be faithful to the spirit and general outline of the original. As he continued working at the rather dull courthouse, surrounded by uninspiring men, he found himself unable to write with all this negative energy. When a new president was elected for the courthouse, he lost his politically appointed job and therefore he settled down before a dim fire in his parlor and he began to write this “romance” which gradually became the body of The Scarlet Letter.

Cited: http://www.enotes.com/scarlet/ http://www.enotes.com/scarlet/themes Narrator The nameless narrator, shared some things with the book’s author, he takes a post as the “chief executive officer,” or surveyor of the Salem Witch House. ( For those readers who haven’t read the story, “Customs” are the taxes paid on foreign imports into a country; a “customhouse” is the building where taxes are paid) He found the establishment of the customhouse to be a run-down dirty place, his fellow workers in the customhouse had lifetime appointments secured safely by family connections. The narrator found them quite annoying because they were elderly so they would always tell him the same stories repeatedly. As the narrators days passed by slowly in the customhouse, he tried to amuse himself since few ships would rarely go to Salem anymore. One rainy day he was scavenging for things and he came upon some documents in the buildings second story which was unoccupied. Looking through the pile, he noticed a manuscript that was bundled with a scarlet, gold-embroiled piece of cloth in the shape of a letter “A.” He examined the packet briefly and he found a scarlet badge, he held it to his chest but he immediately dropped it because he thought it seems to burn him. As he kept looking throughout the manuscript, he discovered it was the work of Jonathan Pue, who so happened to be a custom surveyor a hundred years earlier. An interest in local history led Pue to write a series of events taking place in the mid seventeenth century- a century before Pue’s time and two hundred years before the narrators. (dayummm) The narrator hesitated about attempting to make a career out of writing because he was uneasy about it. But he put his feelings aside and he decided and write a fictional account of Hester Prynne’s experience, the facts weren’t exactly precise but he believed that it would be faithful to the spirit and general outline of the original. As he continued working at the rather dull courthouse, surrounded by uninspiring men, he found himself unable to write with all this negative energy. When a new president was elected for the courthouse, he lost his politically appointed job and therefore he settled down before a dim fire in his parlor and he began to write this “romance” which gradually became the body of The Scarlet Letter.