Hester Prynne Character Traits

While Hawthorne does not give a lot of data about her life before the book opens, he demonstrates her striking character. Hester Prynne is initially hated at the Market-Place, when a gathering of townspeople assembled on the grass outside the prison to witness her discharge. The ladies in the group have a poor feeling for Hester, calling her a criminal ( Nathaniel Hawthorne 46-47). Her disobedience of tradition, her genuineness, and her sympathy may have been in her character from the start, yet the red letter conveys them to our consideration. As the book goes on more and eventually all of Hester’s inward qualities are shown, showing the people of the community she is not who they think she is.
As she is being discharged from the prison, Hester is holding her newborn baby while she is listening to rude and uncalled for comments from spectators(Hawthorne …show more content…
The “halo of misfortune and ignominy” that hung over Hester indicated “something exquisitely painful” as well (51). This re emphasizes the burden that Hester would have to endure for seven years, suppressing her determination (Bruccoli). Another strong trait from Hester is her honesty , she keeps reverene Dimmesdale under secret away from the community of Puritans even though the duo knows who the father of Pearl is. Hester is treated unfairly by the public as the community around her wants her to suffer and does not want to see her succeed and escape from criminal stance/positioning. Hester could have ran away and left the town , but instead she accepts her punishment and stays in the town even though she is hated throughout. She concedes that she's done wrong, acknowledges her discipline, and chooses to "work out another purity than that which she had; more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom" (76). When Hester goes to the Governor’s hall in the middle part of the book to be able to keep