The character of Hester Prynne changed significantly throughout
"The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester Prynne, through the
of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner; she has gone against the Puritan
committing adultery. For this irrevocably harsh sin, she must wear a
of shame for the rest of her life. However, the Romantic philosophies
Hawthorne put down the Puritanic beliefs. She is a beautiful, young
has sinned, but is forgiven. Hawthorne portrays Hester as "divine
and she can do no wrong. Not only Hester, but the physical scarlet
Puritanical sign of disownment, is shown through the author's tone and
as a beautiful, gold and colorful piece.
From the beginning, we see that Hester Prynne is a young and
who has brought a child into the world with an unknown father. She is
punished by Puritan society by wearing the scarlet letter A on the bosom
her dress and standing on the scaffold for three hours. Her hair is a
brown and her eyes deep-set, and black, her attire is rich, carefully
caressing her slender figure. The scaffold is a painful task to bear;
townspeople gathered around to gossip and stare at Hester and her
child, whom she suitably named Pearl, named because of her extreme value
her mother. In the disorder of faces in the crowd, young Hester Prynne
the face of a man she once was fiercely familiar with, whom we later
her true husband, Roger Chillingworth. Her subjection to the crowd of
onlookers is excruciating to bear, and Hester holds the child to her
symbolic comparison between the child and the scarlet letter, implying
Prynne is imprisoned with her child, both of whom are
physically exhausted from the punishment at the scaffold. The husband,
Chillingworth, passes by and is commissioned to be the physician to the
and remedy them of their sicknesses. She is surprised he had come at
time where she was at a point of such horrendous turmoil. H...