How Does Hester Prynne's Transformation

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Hester Prynne’s Transformation in the Scarlet Letter Thesis: In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne sheds the identity the public has given her through her caring acts and maternity to Pearl. BP 1: One of the prime approaches Hawthorne takes to foreshadow Hester’s evolution into a well-respected member of the public is through her caring acts. As a result of her sin of adultery and thenceforth solitude from the rest of the community, Hester utilizes her new, found time to make amends with other in the community by displaying acts of kindness. One way this becomes evident is through her sewing of clothes for people of less fortune, despite her dire situation. Hawthorne writes of Hester, “Though Hester was lonely, …show more content…

Hawthorne highlights the indifference the leaders now feel to her during her time at the Governor’s Mansion. Hester aides the men who were at once cruel to her as a “rightful inmate” of theirs who is seen as an angel of mercy by others (158). Hester’s compassion towards the Governor is stems from the Governor’s past cruelty to her. The fact that she cares for a man who at several points had been at odds with her shows others that she is able to change her ways. It proves that her loyalties do not lie against the magistrate who went against her, but with them. Once Hester does this good deed towards the Governor most of her bounds are broken, and she is viewed as a less threatening member of the community. Carpenter writes “Because she dared to trust herself and to believe in the possibility of a new morality in the new world, she achieved spiritual greatness in spite of her own human weakness, in spite of the prejudices of her Puritan society, and, finally in spite of the prejudices of her creator himself.” (Carpenter, 179). Through the sacrificing of her individuality to strengthen her integrity in the community, Hester

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