The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter, what do these goodwives say should have been done to Hester Prynne?

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The Goodwives believe that Hester's punishment should be far harsher than the one she's been given. One even mentions that she should die as punishment for her sin.

“Goodwives,” said a hard-featured dame of fifty, “I'll tell ye a piece of my mind. It would be greatly for the public behoof, if we women, being of mature age and church-members in good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne. What think ye, gossips? If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I trow not!”

“What do we talk of marks and brands, whether on the bodice of her gown, or the flesh of her forehead?” cried another female, the ugliest as well as the most pitiless of these self-constituted judges. “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die.

Source(s)

The Scarlet Letter