Hester Prynee In The Scarlet Letter

Things, people, and opportunities come and go throughout one's life, but one thing stays forever, sin. Hester Prynee is a woman living in a Puritan town in present day Boston, whose sin of adultery sentences her to a life time of wearing a scarlet "A". In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses Hester to prove that sin is eternal. This is shown through how her daughter sees her, Hester's personal view of the "A", and the inscription on her tombstone.

When one sins, it becomes apart of them. Pearl sees the "A" as a part of Hester, almost something that makes Hester who she is. When Hester calls pearl over, while they are in the forest, Pearl refuses to obey her mother because she notices the "A" is missing from Hester. "Why dost thou not come to me exclaimed Hester. Pearl …show more content…
Hester moves away to Europe, and comes back many years later as an old woman, and still chose to wear the "A". Even after many years, Hester still chooses to wear her letter. "She had returned... resumed the symbol of which we have related so dark a tale. Hester is old, and it has been decades since her sin, but she still refuses to take it off, even when she is given the opportunity. If her sin has stayed with her for this many years, there is no chance that it will fade in her earthly life. However, her earthly life is not the only place that she will be burdened with her sin.

People are not purged of all their sin once they die. When Hester dies there is a phrase on her tombstone, that means the "A" will follow her to the afterlife. After Hester has come back to Boston, and died the Puritan people inscribe a phrase on her grave that reads; “ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES”. Literally, this means, on a black background a red letter A, but it shows that she will forever pay for her sin. The black background is her heart, with a red a on it, which shows that she is still, and will forever remain