The Scarlet Letter: Ball and Chain or Pair of Wings?

Hester’s personal strength allows her to reverse the intended punishment of the scarlet letter. As Dimmesdale remarks about Hester in the first scaffold scene “Wondrous s

The scarlet letter Hester is forced to wear allows her to be more independent over time. As Hester receives her punishment she is forced to move to the outskirts of town, away from society. There she reflects on her new life and comes away a more independent person. “Standing alone in the world, -alone to any dependence of society…she cast away the fragments of a broken chain.” (170). Hester’s actually physical removal from society, like her moving to her new home and the scarlet letter she must wear, remove her mindset from one that must act in a society. In other words, “The world’s law was no law for her mind.” (170). Hester’s independence would never have come if she had not been forced to wear the scarlet letter. The same is the case with

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