Scarlet letter i need someone to explain a quote for me...?

Question

p.45 (second edition) "'It were well,' muttered the most iron-visaged of the old dames,'if we stripped madam Hester's rich gown off her dainty shoulders; and as for the letter, which she hath stiched so curiously, I'll bestow a rag of mine own rheumatic flannel, to make a fitter on!"'

Answer 1

The mean old stern-faced woman judgmentally says that it would serve Hester right if they took away her pretty gown (on which was stitched a fancy curlicued A for adultery) and  give her an old raggedy flannel gown that the woman had worn for her rheumatism to sew a simple more  proper letter A on. This was a very strict religion and fancy sewing and rich fabrics were frowned upon as the devil's playtoys. Plus it was a mockery of sorts for her to make a fancy A after being punished as an adulterer.

Answer 2

The old women were saying that Hester wore her "shame" (the A for adultery) with pride instead of the proper penance it was meant to be. The suggestion is that she should wear an old woolen dress of gray and a study black "A" to be seen as the sad and shameful creature she was deemed to be.

In the time referenced in the "Scarlet Letter" the "sin of adultery" (intimacy without marriage or outside of a proper marriage) was a crime of culture and not something to be "proud in spite of". Hester flaunted her "sin" because she believed her punishment unfair and that the community had no place in her "private life".