Hester Prynne Punishment In Scarlet Letter

During the 1600's there was a type of punishment in Puritan society where someone would have to wear a scarlet letter on their shirt. This was for the reason of public humiliation so people would be discouraged to do anything bad. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne the main character Hester Prynne is being punished for a crime she committed and the punishment was public humiliation so she was forced to wear a scarlet letter. She was being discriminated and left out of society. In this book Hawthorne points out the way in which women are treated in the Puritan world and the way in which their sins are severely punished in the Puritan’s society.

Hester Prynn is forced to wear a scarlet A to be shamed by the society she lives in …show more content…
Then she realizes that she has tripled her sin since not only did she commit adultery and sin against her husband but her sin has corrupted her husband’s soul and now he seeks revenge. Also her failure to warn Dimmesdale led to his downfall. Hester feels wrong for causing the others greif. However it is also true that in her isolation Hester has been wandering in a moral wilderness. So when Dimmesdale claims that he does not have the strength to evade Chillingworth’s evil plan she suggests that they should run away together.

Ultimately, after the death of both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth Hester is able to escape her old identity as a fallen woman. She and Pearl spend many years in the Old World before returning to Boston. But when she does returns to Boston she voluntarily takes up the scarlet letter A. This shows that Hester’s sin has become so much a part of her that she can't actually feel free unless she's doing penance by wearing the A. After Hester dies the fact that Hester and Dimmesdale are allowed to be buried next to each other suggests that the community has in many ways forgiven them for their