Character of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne's art of characterization in “The Scarlet Letter” has a touch of finish and liveliness. In this book, his characters are living people and they impress upon us very convincingly as human beings. Hawthorne's art of characterization is surprisingly markedly realism. Hester Prynne is the heroine of the novel “The Scarlet Letter”. Hester is presented to us ambiguously. When the story begins,

she has already sinned. The story deals with her punishment and her transformation from a sinner to a saint, or the sister of Charity.

According to Puritan ethic, Hester has sinned against the commandment of God and lost his favour forever. She can be made to do penance by making her wear the "Scarlet Letter" which will remind her of her guilt. Hester puts on the Scarlet Letter in the face of an angry public, reconciling herself to her miserable Pearl, because in the town itself she is an object of fun and satire.

With the passage of time, the townsmen feel pity for herself. She leads a life of blameless purity for seven long years. The helpless lady becomes self-reliant and heroic in her sufferings. She earns her livelihood by needle work and embroidery. She also helps those who are in disaster and need. Thus the social on cast assumes the rote of a ‘Sister of Mercy’. Out of her deep sense of dedication and the meaning of the scarlet letter changed from ‘Adultery’ to ‘Able’.

In her love for Dimmesdale, Hester is constant and sincere. She refuses Chillingworth to tell him the name of her lover. She is shocked to see the young minister on the scaffold on the night of his vigil. She is also shocked to know that Chillingworth has been working mysteriously to add to the misery of the minister. She therefore, decides to disclose her husband's identity to her lover.

It is a remarkable feature about Hester that she does not feel guilty of her crime. She does not think that she is a sinner. On the other hand, she holds that her act of adultery had a consecration of its own. She also holds that she has been wronged by Chillingworth much more than she could bear. Chillingworth also acknowledge it. It is perhaps this freedom from the sense of guilt that gives her a strength of forbearance. She inspires the young minister to come out of his gloom and Dimmesdale agrees to her proposal of escape. In chapter-14, when Chillingworth tells Hester that the Puritans are planning to ask Hester not to wear the Scarlet Letter any longer. Hester says that it is not for the community to decide when to abate her punishment which is as mental and psychological as it is social with her patience, courage and humanity, allied to good deeds. Hester proves that she is as good as a Puritan as anybody else. She has been true to her self-ordained punishment.

The Puritan society asserts its authority over the individual conscience by forcing Hester to accept her punishment. Of course, Hester could avoid this punishment by running alone or with Dimmesdale. But Hester triumphs over her circumstance by her vocation and her implicit acceptance of her punishment. The Boston Puritan society is not at all capable of judging Hester because all its members are sinful in one way or the other.

To conclude, we may say that the character of Hester Prynne is a unique creation of Hawthorne. Though externally she remains as a beacon-light to the future sinners lost internally she achieves a harmony with her society, with her dutiful behavior and good deeds. This internal change is symbolized in the varying meanings of the letter "A".