Read this excerpt from chapter 2 of The Scarlet Letter using comprehension strategies.

“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?”

What is the meaning of this excerpt?
The speaker believes that she and her peers ought to be in charge of assigning sentences in cases like Hester’s.
The speaker believes she and her peers ought to be acknowledged for their good standing in the community.
The speaker believes that the older women of the church ought to be allowed to serve as magistrates.
The speaker believes that the magistrates have been too strict in their handling of Hester’s case.

Hester Prynne is the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter", published in 1850. The story is set in Puritan Boston, in the 1600s. Hester has a child as a result of an affair, which leads to her being publicly humiliated. She is forced to wear a scarlet A in her chest, as a sign of her sin - adultery. Still, in the excerpt we are analyzing here, there are those who think of this as a light sentence. The woman who is speaking believes matters such as the one involving Hester should fall into her own hands and the hands of other pious women. They should be the ones punishing, choosing the sentence of women like Hester.