In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, we meet very interesting and detailed characters, including the main protagonist, Hester Prynne. Hester undergoes numerous changes throughout the novel, both emotional and physical. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay From the beginning of the book, we don't know much about Hester's life, except that she was married to a man named Roger Chillingworth, who actually sent Hester alone for two years in Massachusetts while he finished business, and she she has a three month old baby. The book begins with Hester known as a criminal. No one expects him to be so gentle with her until she gets out of prison. As Hawthorne says, "The young women were tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, on a large scale." (Hawthorne 46), we can infer that Hester is a very beautiful woman. She shines with such magnificence, that the sunlight shines on her. Although Hawthorne repeatedly uses sunlight as a symbol of goodness, Hester is seen by society as the opposite. She is made to wear the letter "A" for committing the crime of adultery. However, at the end of the book, we notice how Hester seems to have lost her elegance, and feels as if she has too. Hawthorne observes, "As if there were a withering spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, went away like the setting sun, and a gray shadow seemed to fall upon her." (Hawthorne 174), and we see once again how sunlight is introduced into the text. Instead of drawing Hester into the sunlight, the light now hides from her. Hester notices this, and so does her daughter, Pearl, who was seven at the time. Pearl even says to Hester: “'Mother,' said little Pearl, 'the sun does not love you. He runs away and hides, because he is afraid of something in your breast. Now look! There he is, playing, far away.'” At the beginning of the book, sunlight attracts Hester, because she has no secrets. Everyone knows that she is the adulteress. However, later in the novel, he hides from his daughter what the A means, and he also hides who Pearl's father is. Because of these unconfessed secrets, the sunlight now turns away from Hester. The "A" on Hester's chest could symbolize a sin and would usually cause a great deal of humiliation. As Hawthorne confirms, “judging wisely that one mark of his shame would scarcely serve to hide another, he took the child upon his arm, and, with a fiery blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a look that would not be embarrassed, looked his fellow citizens and his neighbors”. (Hawthorne 46), Hester refuses to humiliate herself to the point of embarrassment and let her peers make fun of her. Hester's strong-willed personality doesn't change much throughout the story. She stands for many other things besides the A itself. She speaks up and silences the Governor and Dimmesdale when they ask to take Pearl away from her. Works Cited Bloom, H. (ed.). (2010). The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Infobase Publishing.Davis, R. (2009). The Scarlet Letter: A Reading. Twayne Publishers.Hawthorne, N. (1850). The Scarlet Letter. Ticknor, Reed, and Fields.Kesterson, D.B. (Eds.). (2012). The Scarlet Letter manual. Wiley.Kopley, R., & Barnes, E.W. (Eds.). (2008). The Cambridge Companion by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Cambridge University Press.Leavis, Q.D. (1962). The Scarlet Letter and the Great Tradition. Chatto & Windus.Martin, T. (eds.). (2017). The Scarlet Letter: an authoritative text, background, criticism. W. W. Norton & Company.Mills, B. (2013). Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter: A Critical Resource Guide and Comprehensive Bibliography e.