When Hester Pyrnne’s reputation is buried beneath a wine-colored blemish, it doesn’t alter who she is. Hester Pyrnne is a woman of immense strength of character and defiance for convention. Because of this, she refuses to crumble and lose all sight of her dreams. Like many new mothers, she simply replaces them, hanging new ones in their place. Hester once wished for what many Puritan women did-- to float over to the New World with the nice older man she was saddled with and live a quiet, simple life. She had woven a life for herself that was quite ordinary. Her dreams changed, for better or worse, when scarlet thread was stitched in. Hester’s new dreams included her daughter, Pearl. Pearl was a living, breathing reminder of Hester’s sin.
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This is her most valuable wish. Hester is caring and gentle but also strong; she endures years of shame and scorn. She is an equal to her husband and her lover in intelligence. Her alienation puts her in the position to make acute observations about her community, particularly about its treatment of women. She is an outsider peering in for years. Hester has lived on a scaffold, being stared and laughed at, and isolated from genuine human connection. These are the shackles she’s forced to wear. The Scarlet Letter itself casts a grey cloud over her appearance. Hester hides her glimmering hair under a cap, her beauty and warmth are gone, buried under the burden of the elaborate Scarlet Letter on her chest. When she removes the letter, she once again becomes the radiant beauty of seven years earlier. Pearl angrily demands she resume wearing the scarlet A. With the scarlet letter back in place, "her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine; and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her." While her punishment changes her physical appearance, it has a far more profound effect on her character. Hester truly is a slave to her embellishment. Her final dream is to be free. She wishes to live a normal life. Not having to work much harder than anyone else for equal respect, not fighting for the ability to keep her daughter, and not living on thin glass are
This is her most valuable wish. Hester is caring and gentle but also strong; she endures years of shame and scorn. She is an equal to her husband and her lover in intelligence. Her alienation puts her in the position to make acute observations about her community, particularly about its treatment of women. She is an outsider peering in for years. Hester has lived on a scaffold, being stared and laughed at, and isolated from genuine human connection. These are the shackles she’s forced to wear. The Scarlet Letter itself casts a grey cloud over her appearance. Hester hides her glimmering hair under a cap, her beauty and warmth are gone, buried under the burden of the elaborate Scarlet Letter on her chest. When she removes the letter, she once again becomes the radiant beauty of seven years earlier. Pearl angrily demands she resume wearing the scarlet A. With the scarlet letter back in place, "her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine; and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her." While her punishment changes her physical appearance, it has a far more profound effect on her character. Hester truly is a slave to her embellishment. Her final dream is to be free. She wishes to live a normal life. Not having to work much harder than anyone else for equal respect, not fighting for the ability to keep her daughter, and not living on thin glass are