Hester Prynne's Character In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne takes place in a small Puritan town in Boston, Massachusetts during the seventeenth century. Hester Prynne, the main character, commits adultery, which is frowned upon by Puritan religion, with the town’s minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. As public punishment she embroiders a red scarlet A with gold thread to wear on her bosom of all her dresses. Pearl, Hester’s daughter, is living proof of Hester’s sin; she continually mocks her mother’s scarlet letter. As The Scarlet Letter progresses over time, the author reveals how the significance of the scarlet letter “A” alters.
At the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne describes the scarlet letter “A” as a symbol of the sin Hester has committed. She is forced to wear the letter so that the people in Boston know she has committed adultery by having Pearl with someone other than her husband, Roger Chillingworth. When Hester comes out of the jail, she displays what is embroidered upon her bosom for the public to see, “…looked around at her townspeople and neighbors. On the breast of her gown,
in fine red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A” (Hawthorne pg. 50). Wearing this letter causes her reputation to be viewed as sinful and her character as unmoral. The author states that the townspeople, however, are astonished and startled by how her beauty still shone out even though the letter represents sin (pg. 51).
As time goes on, the significance of the scarlet letter “A” changes from negative to positive.
Hawthorne decides to change the meaning of the scarlet letter so that it means able, not adultery. Seven years passes since Hester walked out of the jail with the scarlet letter “A” embroidered on her bosom. She starts helping those in need, “None so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty…” (Hawthorne 147). By doing this, the townspeople begin to gain a new perspective of the scarlet letter, “…many people refused to interpret the scarlet A for its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 148). People begin to forgive Hester for her frailty, and they see the letter as a way for Hester to make amends for her sin. Hester undergoes a transfiguration and is gradually becoming herself
again.
As the novel concludes, the minister reveals the affair he had with Hester years ago. After that revelation, Hester gains self-confidence and believes that the scarlet letter has allowed her insight on how to help others who are troubled with unethical thoughts, “Women, more especially,-in the continually recurring trails of wounded, wasted, wronged, misplaced, or erring and sinful passion,-or with dreary burden of a heart unyielded, because unvalued and unsought,-came to Hester’s cottage…” (Hawthorne 239). She tries to ease these women by reassuring them that God has a bigger plan in store and that happiness will come in time. Hester scarlet letter changes from her being able to being an angel, “The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal of medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end” (Hawthorne 239). It seems as if God had other intentions for Hester than just sorrow over a symbol that represented a sin so long ago.
From the beginning to the end of the novel, Hawthorne alters the meaning of scarlet letter “A”. In the beginning the scarlet letter was negative because it represented adultery; however, as time went on, the letter “A” started to become positive by signifying able. As The Scarlet Letter concludes, the scarlet letter “A” represents angel, and people are not looking at Hester with bitterness. Readers learn not to judge a book by its cover, for something could be interpreted differently from its detonation than its connotation. Hawthorne shows how perspectives can change over time.