Who is Hester Prynne?

"Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom." (p.55 DOVER-THRIFT EDITIONS)
Passage taken from The Scarlet Letter, V. Hester at Her Needle

       Another indication of Hester's character, one who has shown great courage despite being a cruel mockery to her society, is shown with this passage. You ask yourself well why doesn't she just leave or why doesn't she show weakness, doesn't she know how great of a sin she committed? Hester, unlike her traditionalist counterparts, earnestly wants to show society that she acknowledges the fact that she has committed a sin, but is unwilling to withstand the attempts by society to bring her down. She feels guilty, of course, but knows that if she submits herself to the ridicule and torments of other people, she is just justifying herself as a weak, frail woman, useless in society. She tries so hard to keep up her dignity and give herself some self-respect with the little she has left, and demonstrates so with her embellishment of the A forever ingrained in her clothing and her refusal to reveal the name of the man she had an affair with. She wants to show society that she will take the punishment she receives for having committed this sin, but will not give up the little dignity she has left of herself, even if it means continuing to stay and suffer in her town. You can see her passion in trying to forgive herself and trying to rid herself of her guilt and shame, and by continuing to stay and endure the rest of her punishment like she should do, she does so in the hopes that she can regain some of the respect and forgiveness taken from her since the incident. 
       What makes this passage so meaningful and important? The fact that Hester is one who is willing to endure the pain and receive her punishment so humbly in the face of a Puritan-valued society shows her difference from the others. With such a great sin, you would think that she would be more cowardly, seen by others and mostly herself as a disappointment to the rest of society, an outcast not of any worth or dignity. To the audience and to the rest of society, though, her strong courage and acceptance comes across as shocking. To actually stay in her town to suffer more ridicule shows her difference from the others. She won't run away like a coward, but will stand in the face of her enemies with some dignity.
        Although Hawthorne uses one long sentence to summarize Hester's reasoning in staying in her town, he does so effectively as he is able to expand upon this important reason. He does not merely state that Hester wants to stay to gain some forgiveness, but dwells upon this reason to place more emphasis into Hester's character. Furthermore, he also writes in a type of parallel structure, such as when he says, "the scene of her guilt...here should be the scene of her earthly punishment," and uses a paradox when he says, "the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul," to show how Hester uses her situation to contrastingly hope to gain the opposite of her punishment, redemption and purification from her damaged soul.


Questions to consider:

• In chapter IV is the physician who Hester has an interview with, Roger Chillingworth, her husband?

• In chapter V why did Hester see her work with the needle as a sin,? - "To Hester Prynne it might have been a mode of expressing...but something doubtful, something that might be deeply wrong beneath"

• In chapter IV what purpose does the incorporation of dialogue between Hester and Roger Chillingworth serve? How does it reveal more of Hester's character?