“This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally overshadowed it, or whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson as she entered the prison-door, we shall not take upon us to determine.” In 1636, Anne …showed first 75 words of 1156 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1156 total…novel was to point out the narrow-mindedness and conservatism of the Puritan leaders, and to show the narrator’s point of view as being favorable toward Hester Prynne over the unimaginative and even mean-spirited Puritan authorities. Wilson was intelligent but lacking in empathy, and he came across as a patronizing, unsympathetic character who had no right to judge Hester Prynne. By contrast, Hester Prynne became all the more sympathetic: open-minded and full of human spirit.