Hester Prynne could not believe that through such an act of love that one could be prosecuted as such a sinner as she was condemned to be.
"Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast, that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes! "these were her realities,--all else had vanished!-.
Within the thirteenth chapter, Another View Of Hester, we the reader begin to learn that the once accusers of Hester Prynne's sin are now changing the contextual meaning of the letter A' that stands on the bosom of Hester Prynne's clothing.
"The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her,--so much power to do, and power to sympathize,--that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength."".
We also learn in this chapter, that only seven years have passed since the faithful day when Hester Prynne stood on the scaffold, in the center of town, only to be verbally trashed with comments about being a "hussy- and why she will not confess to her partner's name. One can only see the irony in the fact that the same people, with the rude comments from the scaffold seven years ago, would be the ones telling the town that the letter adorned on Hester Prynne's dress does not have the same significance it once had. This also leads we, the reader, to believe that the puritan faith of this community is beginning to see that Hester Prynne's sin was not in act of committing a sin, but merely committing an act of love.
"'Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge?' they would say to strangers. It is our Hester, --the town's own Hester, who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!' Then, it is true, the propensity of human nature to tell the very worst of itself, when embodied in the person of another, would constrain then to whisper the black scandal of bygone years.