Mistress Hibbins & “On the other hand, a penalty which, in our days, would infer a degree of mocking infamy and ridicule, might then be invested with almost as stern a dignity as the punishment of death itself a” (Pg. 47)
Mistress Hibbins was accused of being a witch, but though a jury found her guilty, the magistrates refused to accept the verdict. She went to grand court and was condemned and hanged. In this book, Hawthorne uses her as an allusion to Hester Prynne in the fact that they were both accused for something that may not have actually been bad or deserving of such punishment. Throughout the text Hawthorne hints that in his view magic may not be a bad thing and yet Mistress Hibbins, a wealthy merchant owner, is condemned and hung due to the pure belief that Witchcraft is bad based on the puritan society. If the reader believes that commiting adultery was in a sense, just, in this situation, then that begs the questions was Hester Prynne and Mistress Hibbins accused of crimes that were of little stature. And this all plays back into the fact that the punishment for actions in the Puritan Society were a bit extreme.
Miss Hibbins is a motif and symbol in this book. You are on to something here.
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