Question

Read this excerpt from chapter 2 of The Scarlet Letter using comprehension strategies. “Goodwives,” said a hard-featured dame of fifty, “I’ll tell ye a piece of my mind. It would be greatly for the public behoof, if we women, being of mature age and church-members in good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne. What think ye, gossips? If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded?” What is the meaning of this excerpt? The speaker believes that she and her peers ought to be in charge of assigning sentences in cases like Hester’s. The speaker believes she and her peers ought to be acknowledged for their good standing in the community. The speaker believes that the older women of the church ought to be allowed to serve as magistrates. The speaker believes that the magistrates have been too strict in their handling of Hester’s case.

Answer 1

A. The speaker is saying that she and her peers should be allowed to handle the punishments for people like Hester Prynne. She thinks this because they would band together as a group and be all on the same page in their punishment, rather than leaving it up to the magistrate--whose punishment she does not think adequately fit the crime Hester committed.