; (83) suggests that Pearl was a product of love rather than sin.
             Everything about the adultery-the punishment, the emblem, the product-all suggest this "sin" is not a sin. The reader, like the townspeople, expect Hester's time in prison to have a detrimental impact both physically and mentally on her, however, this has had the opposite effect. On the other hand, Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth, is very much wasting away. In Hester's conversation with Roger, he confesses to her "Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relationship with my decay." (69), implying that he was as more at fault than she for the adultery because his was the " first wrong". Hawthorne offers that Chillingworth's "decay" is what was wrong with their marriage. In essence, the festering came before the bad deed, and does not end until his death. This goes against the natural progression that first the evil occurs before the rotting begins.
             Alcott paints a different picture, one where, though Agatha is divine, she is not beautiful. Louis compares Agatha's first encounter with Max as "an empress conferring knighthood" (175), to which Max retorts "Not at all. More like a pretty woman receiving a compliment to her beauty-though she is not pretty, by the way," (175). The introduction of Agatha contrasts sharply with the introduction of Hester in that Agatha is portrayed as perfect in every other way, except beauty: she has riches, men lust after her, and she carries herself with grace and charm. Where Hester is portrayed as "the image of Divine Maternity" (53), Agatha is viewed as "a Diana" (177), a fierce warrior-goddess. Agatha resembles Chillingworth much more than she does Hester. Like Chillingworth, she is keen and c
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