In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn, Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale committed adultery, an unacceptable sin in Puritan times. As a result of their sin, a child is born, whom the mother names Pearl. Of her own free will, Hester must face severe punishment. She must serve several months in prison, stand on the scaffold for three hours under public scrutiny, and attach the scarlet letter "A" to her chest every day as long as she remains in the city of Boston. The letter “A” was to identify Hester Prynne as an adulterous woman and an immoral human being. “Thus the young and the pure would be taught to look at her, with the flaming letter on her breast”, also “as the face, the body and the reality of sin” (73). Holding on to sin can lead to alienation and isolation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay One of the reasons Hester was insane was her refusal to identify another adulterer. When Hester is released from prison and stands on the scaffold, she is asked to reveal the name of the person with whom she committed the sin. Having her heart blinded by love, Hester chooses to stay in town and wear the scarlet letter "A" instead of revealing the other adulterer. She only faced society to protect and be close to the man she still loved. The “impulsive and passionate nature” (54), which seemed pure and natural to Hester, had to face humiliation alone, without the partner of sin. It seemed she was paying not only her own consequences but those of her lovers as well. Saying it herself while standing on the scaffold "I could face his agony as well as my own!" (64). Now assuming all the blame, she has “renounced all her individuality. She would henceforth become the “general symbol towards which the preacher and the moralist could point, and in which they could vivify and embody their images of the fragility and sinful passion of woman” (73). ). After the sin was revealed, Hester never again felt accepted by society. It seemed to her that “every gesture, every word and even the silence of those with whom she was in contact implied and often expressed this. she was banished" (78) from the town. Hester was unable to walk around the town without a child making a rude gesture or a strange glance at her breast. After the crime of adultery became known to All, Hester's appearance completely changed. Her clothes and the way she wore her hair went from beautiful and revealing to plain and common. It seemed that Hester was trying to blend in as much as possible and. go unnoticed. His "ornament", the scarlet letter, which was his destiny to wear" (79) displayed clearly to everyone throughout the city. Assuming that encounters with the scarlet letter would have some sort of immunity effect was the complete opposite of what had actually happened. “From beginning to end, in short, Hester Prynne always had this terrible agony of feeling a human eye on the token; the stain never set; she seemed, on the contrary, to become more sensitive to daily torture” (79). Hester and Pearl were placed outside of town in an abandoned house, far from any habitation. Little children would sneak around to see the scarlet letter. After observing it from the window, they “walked away with contagious fear” (75), as if the scarlet letter burned like fire. Hester's great needlework skills probably saved her from dying of loneliness because she had no "friend.