红色禁恋,心的救赎--《红字》分级原著读写素材14

A crowd of bearded men and tired-looking women in poor clothing stood in front of the door to the prison. The original residents of the town had built a prison and a cemetery before constructing most other buildings in the town. The frightening-looking prison was quite near the cemetery; inside the prison, the main view through the window was of the cemetery. Like all that relates to crime, it seemed that the prison never looked youthful or new, but rather looked always ugly and terrifying.

In front of the prison was a piece of grass, on which a great amount of  weeds had grown. Just near the door to the prison, however, grew a wild rosebush, covered in tender blossoms. One could imagine this to be a last offering of beauty to the prisoner as he went into the feared place, showing nature's pity and kindness.

When the strict Puritans ruled Boston, rather harmless mistakes were considered serious and shameful. Perhaps, a child would be beaten in the town square as a punishment for being ungrateful to his parents. A small crime was considered to be as terrible as the worst of crime, and criminals were punished strictly. The criminals would find no pity from the crowd, as the townspeople stood watching eagerly as the prisoner suffered greatly.

The door of the prison sprang open, and there appeared, like a black shadow coming into the sunshine, the prison guard, with a sword at his side. This person represented the strictness of Puritan law, which it was his duty to give the final punishment to the criminals. He carried his sword in his left hand, and laid his right hand on the shoulder of a young woman, who he dragged forward. At the doorway to the prison, she resisted him, showing her bravery and independence, as she stepped into the sunlight. She held a child, a baby of three months old, who turned its head from the light. The baby's life had, until then, been only in the dark prison, it had never seen the light of day.

When the young woman — the mother of this child — stood in front of the crowd, she held the baby close to her chest, not to show motherly love, but to hide her sign of punishment. In a moment, however, she showed the front of her dress to the waiting crowd. They soon viewed an elegantly sewn letter "A", which was artistically done in fine red cloth surrounded by rich gold thread. The rare piece showed a great amount of skill, which Hester had done herself.

The young woman was tall, with grace and elegance. She had a great amount of dark hair that shown in the sunlight, and a face more beautiful than any other, with dark, mysterious eyes. She was polite and well-mannered, with a tender look. She had never looked as elegant and lady like than ever before when she was taken out of the prison. Many in the crowd were astonished that her look of grace and confidence remained after her long stay in the prison of terrors. Her beauty shone through her misfortune. Her clothes, which she had made for the occasion, seemed to show her spirit, full of disobedience and strength. Everyone in the crowd was attracted to the fantastically sewn letter on her chest. Both men and women stared at the grand piece of needlework on Hester's chest.

Hester looked proud during her shameful walk; she did not show the great pain she suffered, as if her heart had been torn from her body and thrown on the street for all to observe. She was then taken to a platform in the middle of the market place, where she was told to stand so all the town could see her in her shame. Hester's punishment was to stand for a certain amount of time on the platform. She walked up the steps, and was then displayed to the surrounding crowd, looking high and strong. This beautiful woman, holding her child to her chest, looked much like the ideal picture of motherhood, but for Hester Prynne, she had committed the most evil of crimes a woman could.

The crowd was curious about the grand letter sewn onto her chest, although with their silence, they also gave Hester a great deal of guilt and shame to feel. The leaders of the town, who stood together on a balcony looking down at Hester, showed nothing but angry shame. The crowd, thus, did the same. Hester hoped that the crowd, with its hateful looks, was instead laughing at her, so she could give a bitter, proud smile. She felt, at the moment, as if she needed to scream and throw herself from the platform to her death, but she could not.

Yet, as she stood proudly to bear her punishment, the crowd disappeared, at times, as she remembered events from her life before this terrible affair had begun. She remembered school days, sports, childish quarrels, and her years as a young woman. Perhaps these memories were her spirit attempting to relieve her troubled mind from the terrible stress of the current punishment. Standing there, high above the crowd, she remembered her home village, far away in England, and her parents' home, small yet noble. She remembered her father's face, covered in a white beard; her mother's too, with a look of anxious love, always worried about her daughter's choices in life. Hester remembered her own face as a young woman, full of girlish beauty. Then, she remembered the face of an older man, pale and thin, always studying and reading, with a misshapen left shoulder. This was the face of her husband, who promised to meet her in America, although she had left for the new country more than two years ago. Next, she remembered her first days in the new city in America, with its narrow streets, the tall, gray houses, the huge churches, and the public buildings, rather old and plain. Lastly, she remembered her punishment, staring at the crowd of people, showing her looks of hate. Yes, it was she, Hester Prynne, they were staring at, holding a small child in her arms, and the letter "A" in scarlet, elegantly sewn with gold thread upon her chest!

Could it be true? She held the child closely, then looked down at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the child and the shame were real. Yes! — These were her realities — all else in her life was gone!