The adulteress, Hester Prynne, shows a combination of an unrelenting sinner and sainthood, but which one prevails; or do they coexist? In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Hester commits adultery with the town minister and bears a daughter along with the scarlet A on her bosom so everyone can see her sin and shame. Hester undergoes a dramatic change throughout the seven years the book takes place in Boston during the Puritan settlement days, in which she seems to do and think the unthinkable things, but then reflects an inner goodness. Which is her true self?
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