In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne throws out the stereotyped conventions of good and evil in Puritanical New England through his development of the protagonist. During her development, Hester Prynne changes from a symbol of evil to the personification of good.
The character of Hester Prynne plays a different role in the eyes of the colonial Puritans she lives amongst and the limited omnipotent view of the narrator. What the often superstitious townsfolk see as evil or God-sent is different from what the narrator conveys through his privileged knowledge of the tale in its entirety; however, as the tale progresses, the differing views of the main character merges into agreement.
The Scarlet Letter opens with an exhaustive description of setting where the narrator relates the bleakness and vileness of the yet-to-be named sinner as she proceeds from the darkness of prison onto the scaffold where she is ridiculed and berated by her countrymen. Hester Prynne is introduced by symbolism and dialogue as the worst sinner in the new world.
The vivid description of the prison is ripe with symbolism linking Hester Prynne to hell. The prison is described as both old and dark. The description of the condemned coming forth from its door is similar to descriptions of hell. Hester Prynne needs an armed escort as if she is a danger to the people.
"The door of the jail being flung open from within, there appeared, in the first place, like a black shadow emerging into sunshine, the grim and grisly presence of the town-beadle, with a sword by his side and his staff of office in his hand. This personage prefigured and represented in his aspect the whole dismal severity of the Puritanic code of law, which it was his business to administer in its final and closest application to the offender. Stretching forth the official staff in his left hand, he laid his right upon the shoulder of a young woman, whom he thus drew forward until, on the threshold of the prison-door, she repelled him, by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character, and stepped into the open air, as if by her own free-will." (52)
Through this introduction, left until the second chapter, Hester has the arrogance and pride of the devil coming up out the pit.
To further cement her as evil, the first dialogue is from women whose opinions of Hester Prynne vary from utter disdain...
"What do we talk of marks and brands, whether on the bodice of her gown, or the flesh of her forehead?' cried another female, the ugliest as well as the most pitiless of these self-constituted judges. ‘This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there no law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray!'" (51)
... to a kind of pitying sadness.
"‘Ah, but,' interposed, more softly, a young wife, holding a child by the hand, ‘let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart.'" (51)
Initially, the narrator stays un-opinionated and distant from the story. Though, as the story progresses, the narrator begins to sympathize with the saintly behavior and sacrifice Hester Prynne partakes of and only he is witness to.
"Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them. Much of the time, which she might readily have applied to the better efforts of her art, she employed in making coarse garments for the poor." (83)
About two-thirds of the way trough the text, the narrator's positive view of Hester and the public view of her begin to merge. After seven long years of wearing the scarlet letter, the charity and sacrifice of Hester doesn't go unnoticed.
"The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her,--so much power to do, and power to sympathize,--that 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." (161)
At the story's climax, it's the minister's scarlet letter that the crowd is shocked to see. The seven-year secret revealed in such a dramatic way has the effect of a miracle on the crowd. Some see a scarlet letter burned into the minister's flesh, some saw it's the devilish arts of Roger Chillingworth and others saw they see nothing (258-259). Hester ends up disappearing along with Pearl. However, the final merger of the narrator and character's view of Hester manifests itself in the last few pages when she returns to New England sans Pearl, still wearing the scarlet letter. Only, upon her arrival, the scarlet letter is not a badge of shame but a badge of sanctity.
"But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester's life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too. And, as Hester Prynne had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment, people brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, as one who had herself gone through a mighty trouble. Women, more especially,--in the continually recurring trials of wounded, wasted, wronged, misplaced, or erring and sinful passion,--or with the dreary burden of a heart unyielded, because unvalued and unsought,--came to Hester's cottage, demanding why they were so wretched, and what the remedy! Hester comforted and counselled them, as best she might." (263)
Through character, symbolism, narration and dialogue, Hawthorne communicates a life, which endures the darkest scorn of humanity only to rise higher and more saintly than it possible could without enduring those hurts.
