Role Of Hester Prynne In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

The Strong, Sinful Woman

Hester Prynne was ostracized by the society around her for many years following the birth of her daughter Pearl. Since the day she walked out of the prison door people were calling her names and saying she should be put to death, but no matter how many hurtful names the townspeople came up with to throw at her, she always accepted them and said nothing in return. Hester’s crime of adultery went against the town’s religious morals because that strictly disobeyed one of God’s rules. The women of the town tyrannized Hester, but along with the pain and loneliness she experienced, she reacted with generous charity and tolerated isolation from the people around her. Hester Prynne was an immensely strong woman living in a repressed society because she accepted her punishment wholeheartedly, responded …show more content…
Not once did Hester ever refuse her punishment, but she tolerated the humiliation that went along with it. On the day of her public shunning, she stood on the scaffold holding Pearl in her arms with the scarlet letter “A” on her chest without crying or trying to hide. She wore the embroidered “A” for the rest of her life as if the only one who could possibly erase it was God himself. She knew what she did was wrong; she didn’t need anyone to tell her that. She even dressed Pearl in clothes to symbolize a visual image of the scarlet letter so she could repeatedly remind herself of what she had done. After she was cast away from society, she attended church and tried to raise her daughter with a religious understanding. Everyone sins, and although Hester was not the ideal puritan, she confronted her past and dealt with her wrongdoing in the way that most “good” puritans would not. Hester was physically and mentally reminded of her sin daily, however she remained strong and learned to accept the punishment as if it were physically bound to