Hester Prynne
The character of changed significantly throughout the novel
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. , through the
eyes of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner; she has gone against the
Puritan ways, committing adultery. For this irrevocably harsh sin, she
must wear a symbol of shame for the rest of her life. However, the
Romantic philosophies of Hawthorne put down the Puritanic beliefs. She is
a beautiful, young woman who has sinned, but is forgiven. Hawthorne
portrays Hester as "divine maternity" and she can do no wrong. Not only
Hester, but the physical scarlet letter, a Puritanical sign of disownment,
is shown through the author's tone and diction as a beautiful, gold ...
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at Hester and
her newborn child, whom she suitably named Pearl, named because of her
extreme value to her mother. In the disorder of faces in the crowd, young
Hester Prynne sees the face of a man she once was fiercely familiar with,
whom we later learn is her true husband, Roger Chillingworth. Her
subjection to the crowd of Puritan onlookers is excruciating to bear, and
Hester holds the child to her heart, a symbolic comparison between the
child and the scarlet letter, implying that they are truly both
intertwined.
Prynne is imprisoned with her child, both of whom are emotionally and
physically exhausted from the punishment at the scaffold. The husband,
Roger Chillingworth, passes by and is commissioned to be the physician to
the two, and remedy them of their sicknesses. She is surprised he had
come at such a time where she was at a point of such horrendous turmoil.
He demands that she cannot reveal his identity, yet he also wishes to know
the identity of her lover, the ...
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asks Hester to join her in the forest at night to sign the Black
ManÆs book with her own blood, she insists that she cannot, but if her
little Pearl would be taken away, she would gladly join the ôwitch-ladyö
in the forest that night, and sign the great book in her own blood!
Pearl continuously mocks authority in the novel, a key characteristic of
the imp-childÆs demeanor. She asks stupid questions that she already
knows the answer to, like, ôMother, did you ever sign the black manÆs bookö
, and, Why does the minister Dimmesdale hold his hand over his heart?ö
The mockery does not end there, however, and Pearl goes on about her
retarded ways, throwing rocks at other children that ...
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Hester Prynne. (2008, October 9). Retrieved November 4, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hester-Prynne/91185
"Hester Prynne." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 9 Oct. 2008. Web. 4 Nov. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hester-Prynne/91185>
"Hester Prynne." Essayworld.com. October 9, 2008. Accessed November 4, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hester-Prynne/91185.
"Hester Prynne." Essayworld.com. October 9, 2008. Accessed November 4, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hester-Prynne/91185.
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