Essay Example on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel The Scarlet Letter

For Pearl the letter is positive it makes her mother special Pearl associates the scarlet letter with all the good qualities of her mother and when in the forest with Dimmesdale Hester takes off the letter in front of Pearl She refuses to come to her mother and she points her small forefinger at Hester's bosom Without the letter Pearl feels as though her mother has disappeared She has attached the letter to her mother and her mother to the letter They have become one and for Pearl this is immensely important Another way the letter ceases to hold its original meaning is the way that the townspeople view it In their eyes Hester Prynne has become a woman known for doing good works She helps the sick and the downtrodden always wearing the scarlet letter on her breast Most people in the community accepted her and many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification They said that it meant Abel so strong was Hester Prynne with a woman's strength In the end Hester will not be shunned She is strong and kind and her good works outweigh her sins The community begins to overlook their rigid rules because they like Hester as a person The letter makes Hester different not only to her daughter and her community but to herself It is remarkable mulls the narrator that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society So it seemed to be with Hester She is no longer a child of passion and rebellion who had a foolish affair and in the past years when she has worn the letter she has reflected and found herself Even after the scaffold and the imprisonment after public scorn and humiliation Hester Prynne still looks back and sees that perhaps her actions were not made with the purpose of sinning she is just a woman who thinks differently than those around her She begins to understand that in the end the same letter which insulted her also empowered her and taught her how to become independent