Kaylin Brown

American Literature
Scarlet Letter Final
3/27/2020

Unimaginable
Imagine walking the streets every day with everyone looking down on you and knowing

you deepest and darkest secrets. In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I can’t

even imagine what Hester went through every day, a day in her shoes would be eye opening for

sure. The burning of the scarlet letter affected everyone involved in Hester’s life in different

ways. Hester became strong and better because of it. Pearl struggled to become a normal child.

Dimmesdale was filled with shame and guilt. We see how it has affected the characters in the

beginning of the book and how the affect changes throughout as they grow as people.

The burning of the scarlet letter on Hester bosom resulted in her being looked upon

shamefully, but in the end she turned it around and changed the meaning to angel or able. “Many

people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original, signification. They said that it meant

Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (148). She grew from it and

became an amazing person because of the struggles she faced in her life. It humbled her, gave

her empathy, and made her remarkably strong. Where, most people may of hid and became the

nasty person everyone was saying she was, she turned it around and changed nothing to

something great.

The burning of the scarlet letter on Hester bosom gave Pearl the name evil child. “No, my

little Pearl” said her mother. “Thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have none to give thee”

(95)! She did have her moments when she looked like that evil child everyone thought she was.
Hester never gave up hope for Pearl though, she believed all along in the good side we saw come

out in Pearl. As we saw when Hester took off the scarlet letter Pearl did not react well she felt it

connected her to her mother. She always knew it had something to do with her. Pearl seemed to

not recognize her mother without the scarlet letter. It wasn’t that she didn’t recognize Hester she

felt that, her mother taking off the scarlet letter was her way of saying she didn’t want her

anymore.

Dimmesdale had so much guilt it made him physically sick and eventually kills him. He

would clutch his chest as to where an “A” like Hester’s would be. Pearl put it together before

anyone else did. Hester and Pearl have stood on the scaffold and been scrutinized before but

Dimmesdale was not up there with them. “Ye have been here before, but I was not with you.

Come up hither once again, and we will stand all three together”(140). He feels guilty that he has

not endured what they have. When Dimmesdale and Hester talked in the forest we saw just how

much the guilt and shame had been eating him up inside. Him knowing what he had done, but

still walking around with people looking up to him brought him so much guilt. He walked

around judgement free. Meanwhile Hester walked around with everyone who saw her knowing

what she had done. The thought made him physically ill and brought him hardship.

The secret behind the scarlet letter was what really was the black cloud over the

character’s heads throughout the book. The lengths they went through to keep everything secret

tore them apart inside. We see Hester become great with her secret burned on her chest. When,

the secrets finally came out we see how it set them free. It was a like the storm was over a sigh of

relief was let out by all. The scarlet letter helped them grow in some ways but I think it was the

secret that held them all back. Because, as Hawthorne said the truth cannot be kept secret forever

it will eventually come out.