The Scarlet Letters

What is remarkable about the scarlet letter Hester makes? What do you think Hawthorne is suggesting by having Hester make such a letter?

Hester made the letter in red, with gold embroidery to stand out against the drab, lifeless clothing Puritan women were forced to wear.  It represents her courage, her passion for life and her indignation at being forced to wear it.   

Hester will not surrender her life to the judgement of the town.  She wears the letter, as she is required, but by making it colorful, she is being defiant towards those who have so condemned her.

"Instead of being a symbol of scorn, Hester, and the letter A, according to the narrator, "became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too."

Hawthorne has Hester wear the A as an expression of Puritan religious beliefs. In their religion, you are either elect, chosen by God to go to heaven or not.  Good works do not get you admission to heaven. 

Hester is marked with sin to remind the community that she is condemned, permanently, according to the Puritan beliefs.

Although marked with the A, Hester rises above the public humiliation.  She does not run away, she finds a way to make a living and raise her daughter.  She becomes larger than the visible mark of her sin and earns respect.