Although the scarlet letter burned a hole to her heart, Hester wears it and never denies it, which shows a true strength from within. When she was subjected to standing on the scaffold she held her baby tight as people looked her up and down with disgust (Hawthorne 52). Even though the "A" presented such problems for her, she didn't remove it and stood her sentence out despite how embarrassing it must have been. The first thing her darling Pearl noticed when she was born was the scarlet letter on her

"'Come, Hester, come! Support me up yonder scaffold!'" (230) he calls. With her help he reveals everything and then rips open his shirt to uncover an "A", for which he used to deal with his guilt. Hester had no one to lean on except herself when her sin was made public. The community shunned her and all she had was her daughter. Although it would seem that she had the worst punishment, Dimmesdale was forced to deal with an inner pain. Then out of the shadows, to which she was cast away, came Hester to help Dimmesdale cure this inner pain. Her strength is more than that of any man's. The citizens of the women's right's movement would have looked up to the fact that she supported a man's pain and the pain of her own heart, and still managed to stay strong.

with gold thread and was artistically embroided with care only capable of someone with true skill. It caught the eyes of all the women in the crowd because it was very tasteful, but far beyond what was allowed in her community (50). The "A", although a magnificent creation, was supposed to be a disciplinary action, and because it was so detailed, many thought Hester was making a mockery of the system that punished her. The women called her a "brazen hussy" and felt she was not taking the sentence seriously (51). Although her clothes were dirty from sitting in prison all day, they still reflected the true essence of her personality. It was "'modeled much after her own fancy, [and] seemed to express the attitude of her spirit, the desperate recklessness of her mood, by its wild and picturesque peculiarity`" (52). Her work is none other than making art with the needle. Her embroideries are found everywhere in town, from the wealthy to the governor himself. However, never once was her work found on a single bride (86). Perhaps this is because they represent what is pure and innocent about women, and no one would want her tainting that. She also designs decorative outfits for her daughter as well. For someone who was cast out of society for committing a sin, her daughter and her are very well dressed. Pearl's outfits are decorative and "fanciful" which helped to define her developing personality, strong and mysterious (87). In this way she represents Pearl as an individual much like her own self. The way she dressed shows her defiance of the strict and unreasonable Puritan society. She does what she wants and designs her clothes to reflect the attitude she takes towards life. Many women at this time would not have the strength to be so rebellious, but Hester is not every woman.

Some topics in this essay:
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