The Market-Place

In the second chapter of The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne finds herself standing in front of everyone in the market-place, holding her child and wearing the letter "A" on her dress. She starts to reminisce about when she was young and she didnt have these troubles. I find the end of this chapter very powerful when it says, "She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast, that it sent forth a cry." To me this seems as though she is trying to hold on to her past and her childhood by gripping the baby. Also, the fact that she reaches down and touches the letter shows me that she is a woman that should not be in this situation because, to validate the situation she is in she needs to reach down and touch the letter, as if she were in a dream and she thought she would wake up. I really liked the ending to this chapter.