As an outcast, the separation from society allows Hester to discover and define meaning in her own life. Hester sees the letter as a representation of Pearl, the joy of her life; it cannot have a negative significance. Hawthorne says, “The sin that man thus punished, had given her a lovely child [Pearl], whose place on that dishonored bosom, to connect her parent forever with the race and descent of mortals, …show more content…
Due to Hester and Pearl’s lives as outcasts, they only have each other as company. Because this is all they know, the pair creates their own community with their own values. Hester professes, “She is my happiness!...See ye not, she [Pearl] is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved” (Hawthorne 133). Because her daughter is her “happiness” and is “only capable of being loved,” Hester has changed the meaning of the letter to represent her deep love of her daughter. Her daughter is her entire world, and she does not regret the life of her child. Without out the A, Hester would be lost. The letter, therefore does not represent guilt, but instead love, and her life revolving around her love of