How Does Hester Prynne Change In The Scarlet Letter

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A choice is the basis upon which any given life develops and continues in a specific way. It allows for the maker of the choice to take control of the outcome of their life and decide what it is that they should be doing. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne makes choices that further develop and change her as a character, and has to face the consequences of those choices. While her husband, Roger Prynne, is believed to be dead and gone for a lengthy period of time, Hester has a relationship out of wedlock with the town minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Although it isn’t believed by her to be wrong due to the lack of intention behind her actions, the community believes otherwise and decide to take action in the matter, resulting …show more content…
Outrageously, she is forced to continuously wear a red letter “A” on her chest to show to everyone she meets what she had done. That way, she wouldn’t be treated as an equal within the community and would be publicly humiliated everywhere she went. As said in the text, “Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast,—at her, the child of honorable parents,—at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman, —at her, who had once been innocent, —as the figure, the body, the reality of sin. (Hawthorne, 88)”
Although she comes to terms with her punishment and accepts the “A” as part of her life, it still has its long lasting effects on her due to the negative attention she receives from it, as well as the guilt she bears in accordance with the sins of both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. According to the text, “The scarlet letter burned on Hester Prynne's bosom. Here was another ruin, the responsibility of which came partly home to her. (Hawthorne, 187)” Along with that, she becomes alienated and isolated from the rest of the community en route to becoming a more antisocial and relatively cold person, while
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