Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter is a story full of themes of guilt, pride, hypocrisy, retribution, and isolation. Taking place during the seventeenth century, the story of Hester Prynne and her famed scarlet letter depicts a story of unconceivable proportions.

In the first eight chapters of the story, Hester is able to maintain a cool, calm, and collected attitude against the rest of the Puritanical town of Boston, Mass. who portrays her as an adulterous leech. Despite her apparent shortcomings, Hester is able to beat the odds and go on to live her life, attempting to maintain her dignity, identity, and her illegitimate daughter, Pearl, in the absence of her partner. I continue admiring Hester throughout the story because I believe that she is a unique person who is able to overcome the retributions imposed upon her as an outcast of society exemplified by the Puritans. In...