The Scarlet Letter

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 11th grade March 2002

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Hester Prynne, she had to have been the strongest, emotionally and mentally, out of all the characters in the book, The Scarlet Letter. She had to put up with so much, I know for a fact most people couldn't have lived like that. She could have left if she wanted to, but she didn't. She stayed there and proved herself to the town.

I probably would have left soon after I got out of jail there. I couldn't have stood up there in front of all those people, on the scaffold and be denounced by them. They probably pointed and laughed, with thoughts of disgust in their minds. I would have broken, mentally, and started crying, or tried to run off and gotten into more trouble. She was a very mentally strong person, she knew she had to take this well or she wouldn't have lasted long. This is one of the many reasons I would have fled from the two.

I wouldn't have lasted long living like that.

The town talked about her for probably a few years before they started getting on and forgetting about it. Although the letter "A" is a memento of what she had done, they seemed to disregard that, later on. At first though, the town looked down at her like they were better people. Maybe that she didn't deserve to stay there, maybe she didn't deserve to even visit their town; those were thoughts on the people's minds at first. The point is they didn't like her for what she had done, although it didn't hurt anyone physically or mentally, it was still a horrible crime to them.

They even wanted to take Pearl away from Hester. But, Hester wouldn't let them, she begged, pled, and then she even intervened when they were talking and asked for help from Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale told them that Pearl is both a blessing and a reminder of Sin, for Hester. I myself would have probably fled the town before going to see the governor about keeping Pearl. I would have been to afraid that they would have taken her; eve Hester admits that if Pearl had been taken from her that night, she would have meet with the witches. Pearl was basically the only reason that Hester was living.

The possibility of a new life for her was the best thing for her to do"”and she was going to do it. After the night that Hester and Pearl meet Dimmesdale in the forest, they decided they were going to leave and start a new life together, as a family. Hester would finally be able to let her hair out and show her true beauty, and take off the Scarlet letter from her bosom and live life normally again but with a family. They were going to go to Europe; it would have been great if only Chillingworth didn't decide to tag along. The thought of a new life with her love was destroyed when Dimmesdale climbed the scaffold, and he relinquished the truth.

In the end of this book the people of the town finally found out who was the secret lover of Hester Prynne, and the father of Pearl; this tragedy for all the main characters in this book. Hester loses her lover, Pearl loses her father, Dimmesdale loses his life, and Chillingworth loses his most hated enemy. So as you can tell Hester would have had to be the strongest character in this book. I think this book is proving that no one is perfect, even the devout Reverend Dimmesdale can sin. Hester went through so much, and yet just kept on going.