Difficulty Paper

I had difficulty understanding what was going on during the beginning of the Scarlet Letter. The language is what initially threw me off. I was having trouble understanding the meaning of what was going on, and I would often catch my mind wandering off onto other thoughts. From what I can deduce, Hester Prynne was being held imprisoned for committing adultery. That part I understood. The part I had trouble visualizing was the very first scene in which Hester's cell mates were talking. I read trough this scene, and continued to read on, and I now possess an understanding and familiarity with the way Nathaniel writes. I'm sure all I have to do is re-read this scene and I'd get a better grasp of what was going on. I still find my mind wandering off when I'm not engaged in the reading. I have to be carefully reading along and re-reading sections to understand whats going on, I also find that there is a lot of hidden meaning going on, and have found similarities with the Scarlet Letter and his short story Young Goodman Brown. I want to continue my close reading and begin annotating the text, however I'm not sure exactly what to write down. I'm on p. 92 and about to begin XI. The Interior of a Heart. I read through the first part of the book titled "The Custom-House" and I found that to be a more difficult reading than the actual story. As far as difficulty, I found Chapter II. The Market Place to be especially confusing.
             Upon a second reading, I understood that there is a gathering of people waiting for Hester Prynne outside of the jail house, so that they may watch her punishment of standing at the scaffold for three hours for her act of adultery. Nathaniel notes that the Puritans were known for giving harsh punishments. I originally didn't understand what was going on with the women that were talking during this scene. I thought they were being held prisoners as well with Hester the first time I read it. On my second reading I can see that they were standing outside by the scaffold waiting for Hester's entrance. Nathaniel describes them in a negative light, saying their ugly and man-like, the contrary of Hester's appearance. One of the women says to the townspeople that Reverend Dimmesdale gave Hester a kind sentence, and says that she would of given her a harsher punishment. The ugliest of the women goes as far as saying that she should be killed for her actions. I found it interesting that one of the footnotes describes a real life person as having the name Hester Craford (1688) who was to be punished for the same crime by being "severely whipped" by none other than William Hawthorne. Hester Craford was also expecting a child which coincides with Hawthorne's character of Hester Prynne. The rest of the scene goes accordingly.
           "The women who were now standing about the prison-door stood within less than half a century of the period when the man-like Elizabeth had been the altogether unsuitable representative of the sex" (p. 38). I found this line to be really funny, especially after looking up a picture of Queen Elizabeth I.