Hester Prynne Change In The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter follows Hester Prynne, a woman whose husband had stayed behind while she traveled to Boston. While in Boston she has an affair with the towns minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, and gives birth to her daughter Pearl. This introduces the main plot of the novel. Hester is forced to wear a letter A on her gown and becomes ostracized by the townspeople for committing adultery. She struggles to live as everybody in the town dislikes her. She also is having a hard time keeping her daughters real father a secret. He meets with Hester who promises not to tell anyone who he really is. He is asked to take care of the now sick Arthur Dimmesdale, the man he suspects to be his wife’s lover. Roger, wanting revenge, decides to torment Arthur.

She is an outcast forced to live on the outskirts of the town. She is an independent woman who cares for her daughter Pearl alone. Hester is a round and complex character whose change throughout the story is well discussed by the narrator. She starts out as an outcast struggling to live with her daughter. She is bitter towards the town that shamed and ostracized her. She also feels a great burden from the scarlet letter she is forced to wear, yet she is too proud to let others know. As the story progresses, she becomes stronger and more compassionate; she eventually redeems herself. She learns to view herself in a more modest manner. Hester’s main conflict is external. She had an affair and was accused of committing adultery by the town. She struggles to live with herself and does not know what her true identity is. “But in lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful and self-devoted years that made up Hester's life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the worlds scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too (Hawthorne 225).” At the end of the novel, Hester finally learns to accept herself for what she really is. She no longer views the scarlet letter as a burden of shame. Instead she feels empowered by it as it gave her the experiences she needed to grow and become a better person. Hester Prynne was faced

He is an antagonist of the story. He is deeply plagued by his consciousness about his immoral affair with Hester. He feels guilty because he is keeping the truth from his congregation and letting Hester suffer alone. He is a round character who is able to change in the end. He decides to redeem himself by confessing to the crowd in his last sermon. However he only does this near the end of his life. During most of the time he spent living, he was a hypocrite and acted deceitfully. His conflict is within himself; it is internal. He feels guilty for having an affair with Hester and keeping it a secret. As a result, he punishes himself physically, going to great lengths to try and rid himself of guilt. He lives his life hiding the truth from others, while watching Hester struggle to come to terms with the truth. The height of the hypocrisy in the situation comes when Dimmesdale tells Hester, "Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him-yea, compel him, as it were-to add hypocrisy to sin (Hawthorne 58)?" Arthur says this when he wants Hester to reveal his name as the adulterer. He cannot bring it upon himself to confess and instead wants