The novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was an objective description of the life of Hester Prynne, who is an adulteress. The novel does not go into specific details of the thoughts of the woman except to describe her character. Throughout the novel she faces humiliation by the other people of Boston, but all the while remains a woman of great probity, never losing her sense of pride. Hester Prynne suffers enormously from the shame of her public disgrace and from the isolation of her punishment; however, she retains her self-respect and survives her punishment with dignity, grace, and ever-growing strength of character. .
From the moment Hester Prynne is introduced into the plot of The Scarlet Letter in chapter 2, "The Marketplace", the reader realizes she is very prideful and strong. As an adulteress, she is forced to endure ignominy from her peers and is sentenced to have the letter "A- sewn to her chest. When standing on the scaffold as punishment for her sins, she stands strong and tall, although her mind wanders off at times. Ultimately Hester shows her pride despite her unforgiveable' sin.
Hester exhibits great courage all throughout The Scarlet Letter. The best example of this courage is her willingness to stay in Boston, the town where both the sin and punishment took place. In chapter 5, Hester arrives at a reason for her to continue to be a resident of New England, .
Here, she said to herself had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost: more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom."˜(Hawthorne, P. 35).
This quote illustrates how courageous Hester because she can escape shame and ridicule but chooses to stay and suffer. For many years, Hester was considered an outcast by the people of her town.
