Chpt. 3 S.L.

#4
The penalty thereof is death. But in their great mercy and tenderness of heart, they have doomed Mistress Pryne to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then and thereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom.

For some reason the Puritan colony decides  take great mercy upon Hester Pryne and give her the sentence above. This was unusual to me since the Puritan religion is strict one when it comes to the law and premarital sex. How could she get off with a mere three hours on the platform of pillory and a beautiful letter upon her dress? Perhaps its just because she's the main character, but I say otherwise! My first belief was that it was because of the circumstances that she had lost her husband. They wouldn't of known if he had died in a shipwreck while on the long voyage across the Atlantic or if he had just stayed in England and ditched Hester. My other idea was that since she has this demonic baby and since the Puritans don't actually know how the baby will actually turn out they might of just said "lets see how things will turn out and leave the mother in charge until we know for sure."

Or Pearl she is pursuing the sunlight because she is a budding flower.