Disclaimer: Sugarpony neither owns nor wishes to own The Scarlet Letter.
---
Chapter Two
The Letter
---
While Mother, poor Hester Prynne, was living in that prison, she sewed herself a scarlet letter. It was affixed to her chest with golden thread, and it remained there for the rest of eternity. It was a curse; it played with her mind, tortured her soul, and was a constant reminder of her terrible fate. I was fascinated by it as a child, it is true, and often times I made this cruel torture even worse. I did not fully comprehend the meaning of the letter at the time, but I knew that it was something evil which inflicted my mother. I knew that it was the result of something horrible which she had done, and so I investigated as well as I could. I experimented with Mother. I asked about the letter at every opportunity I could grasp, for my curiosity had to be satisfied! It had to be satisfied, for it was necessary that I knew as much as possible to survive in our little world that had been created.
One day, Mother and I were walking on the edge of the woods. She had brought us there so that she might speak to the Doctor Chillingworth, or so I presume, for she shooed me away as we drew near to him. I ran to play while they spoke, and afterwards, Mother called to me again, and we proceeding into the forest. In my adventures, I had placed a few weeds on my chest in the shape of an 'A' like Mother?s to see if she would finally tell me why she wore her own.
She did see my little costume, and she therefore asked me if I knew what her scarlet letter meant. I replied that it was the letter 'A', and she asked me if I knew why she wore her letter. I knew that she wore it for a dark reason, just as the Reverend Dimmesdale from the church held his hand over his heart, and I told her as much. Mother told me that my suspicions were correct and asked me once again if I knew why this was so. I told Mother no, I did not know why she wore her letter, and I asked her to explain. She said she wore the letter for the golden thread, but I still did not know the full and true meaning of the letter. I asked again what it meant and why the minister held his hand over his heart, but she did not tell me; instead, she bade me to be quiet else she shut me ?in the dark closet.? I knew that I would receive no more answers, and so I let the matter drop.
I do know now, however, what this letter means. Mother was impressed upon to wear the letter by the town as a punishment for her sin. The horrible scarlet letter 'A' stood for Adultery.