She had a deep desire to allow her creativity to flourish, but after trying to escape this artistic prison that was Puritan code and failing outwardly, she retreated to a less obvious form of expression with the "scarlet letter, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated" (Hawthorne 40). The love and passion she felt in her life had to be expressed through her lovely embroidery, since her society could not handle it in any other way. Her needlework, which was her claim to artistic glory, was "a mode of expressing the passion of her life" (Porte 376) Though others may have had similar passions that Hester did, Hester was the only one to outwardly show her "shame" with a stern pride, like that of an artist displaying a controversial masterpiece. Hester, with her brilliant scarlet A draped over her, was like a large ruby lying in a pile of charcoal. And these other members of Boston who refused to allow their passions to shine through, recognized Hester's gift, and although they gossiped and criticized her for such flagrancy, "the dames of a court might gladly have availed themselves [with her needlework]" (Hawthorne 57). Hester possessed an art that was full of life and even those who believed it was sinful still enjoyed its beauty.
Artwork was something that Hester made her living off of, but it was also something that defined her life in a very different way. As mentioned earlier, "her art was not pretty, but splendid, and not cold, but fiercely passionate," and these qualities existed in her work because they "stemmed from the same passionate self that engendered Pearl" (Leone 93). Pearl was quite possibly Hester's greatest work of art. It is the job of the great artist to use his creative powers to develop a work that mirrors his artistic vision, and similarly a mother utilizes her creative power in order to produce a more natural piece of artwork that reflects her own passion in the same manner that Hester did.
