In the Blood

Part 1: Themes

The connection between marriage and womenЎЇs happiness:

In the beginning of the play, all actors clustered together, they said: she oughta be married thatЎЇs why things are bad like they are. But to who? She has five children and each of them has different father. In my opinion, she shouldn't marry any of them, because none of them accept her for who she really is. Even though she is a person that sleeps around with all of the men that she meets, she doesn't deserve to be with any of them. Even though we feel sorry for her, but throughout the play, she doesn't change her ways. And we see that multiple times, for example, when she was with the doctor trying to get a checkup, she still was trying to sleep with him. and with the preacher, she did do a sexual act with him even after he pretended not to know her. even though she tried to change her ways, she never did .so for me, I think that she doesn't deserve to be with any of the men, but at the same time, I don't think the men are right either because they had a child with Hester, and didn't take responsibility for it.

Education and dignity:

In the play, they look down upon Hester just because she hasnЎЇt been educated, even herself. She feels ashamed for that. Though 'knowledge changes our destinyЎЇ, knowledge doesnЎЇt dominate our destiny. Like Jesus, though he hadnЎЇt been educated he should be dignified for sure, so not all people who have no education are not dignified. The definition of Dignity is: poise and self-respect. So for Hester, she could stand straightly if she self-respect herself and treasures herself. It is interesting that her oldest son Jabber knows how to read at least he can recognize a little words, we have no idea about how he got educated, or he just knows the bad words on the wall. In his situation, he always see these words on the wall, the bad boys who write them wonЎЇt just write them, they will yell out at the same time they write. So we can assume that Jabber learned the words though that way, but I cannot imagine the feeling Jabber got when he sees that words printed on the wall again and again. Does he feel ashamed or angry or he is used to thatÐŽ­

Anyway even though she has no knowledge, even though she has not been married, even though she has five children with five different fathers, she can still has her own life her own happiness, only if she doesnЎЇt look down upon herself.

Part 2: Elements relate to the themes

The letter A

We see the letter A in the play many times, from the beginning to the end. Under the bridge, on the wall , she writes the letter over and over, not because she likes it, it is the only thing she can write. When the doctor tried to examine her eyesight, Hester keeps saying A not because it is the only thing she can see, it is the only thing she can recognize. At the end of the play, she uses