The Responsibility Of Hester Tone In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter

Throughout the next few years, Hester acts charitable and develops into a passionate, yet lonely, mother. Resisting the Puritan town’s harsh societal pressures, Hester remains in Boston to fulfil her punishment. She tells herself that “here...had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment” (84), so she sustains the daily humiliation without complaint. Despite her own poverty and her responsibility of bringing up Pearl, Hester chooses to use her talented sewing skills to help both the wealthy and the poor. Despite her generous actions, however, even “the bitter hearted pauper [throws] back a gibe in requital of the...garments wrought for him by the fingers that could have embroidered a monarch’s robe”