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?

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Annabel Levine

23 January, 20:04

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?

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Desmond Moody · Answer 1

The meaning of this excerpt is that these women, 'goodwives', didn't agree with the decision that the 'worshipful magistrates' had awarded Hester Prynne, who ran away from her husband and then got impregnated by another man. They think of her as a promiscuous woman, who doesn't deserve the light sentence she was given, but if she were in front of those women to judge her, she would have gotten a completely different sentence. A much harsher one.