How Does Hester Prynne Change Throughout The Scarlet Letter

In the Puritan society of the 18th century, everything is focused around God and being pure. In The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne, a main character of the novel, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates how not to be pure. Henry F. Chorley’s article, Severity, Purity and Sympathy analyzes the transformation of the town and Hester throughout the novel. Hester Prynne, a motherly woman in the Puritan society, is shunned from her community because of her actions. Hester transforms from being shunned in the community, to being a person that everybody feels bad for because of the way she is humiliated. In Chorley’s article he makes three claims about the themes of The Scarlet Letter; severity, purity, and sympathy and these three claims help shape

In the Puritan society, the community does not usually see people break laws, so when Hester commits adultery, it is so severe. Hester is humiliated in front of the whole community and told to wear the A because the community wants her to feel her shame. In Chorley’s article he states, “The Scarlet Letter is a badge of Hester Prynne’s shame…” (Chorley 184). In this quote he is saying that the A is to illustrate how severe of a law she broke in her community and to make her feel bad for breaking the law. The A is a constant reminder to Hester to remind her on how severe her actions are. Chorley’s claim in his article is completely right about him stating severity represents how bad Hester broke the law. The Scarlet Letter helps make his claim true by

Throughout the whole novel Hester is humiliated, rejected, and exiled from her community. The community starts to sympathize for Hester and they consider letting her take the letter off because she is not the same person she once was. In Chorley’s article he states, “...,we ought to add that we recollect no tale dealing with crime so sad and revenge so subtly diabolical” (Chorley 184). Chorley is stating that the town is starting to feel bad for making Hester wear the A and basically disowning her from the community. They believe that nobody else should feel that pain because it was not right and so wrong of them for making her feel like she did not belong in the same town as them. She is banished to the forest to live in a small cottage to be isolated from the rest of the town. In the Scarlet Letter Hawthorne states, “It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off this badge,” calmly replied Hester” (Hawthorne 117). In this quote Hawthorne feels that the town is considering letting her take off the letter, just like Chorley states in his article. It is a big step in the community saying sorry for how the years of shame they make Hester feel. At the beginning of the story nobody feels bad for Hester because of how bad she breaks the law. But, at the end of the story everybody in the community feels bad because she