The Scarlet Letter: The Spiritual Growth of Hester Prynne The character of Hester Prynne changed significantly over the course of the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester Prynne, in the eyes of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner; she went against Puritan customs, committing adultery. For this grave sin, he will have to wear a symbol of shame for the rest of his life. However, Hawthorne's Romantic philosophies reject Puritan beliefs. She is a young, beautiful woman who has sinned, but is forgiven. Hawthorne portrays Hester as “divine motherhood” and she can do no wrong. Not only Hester, but the physical scarlet letter, a Puritan sign of denial, is shown through the author's tone and diction as a beautiful, golden, colorful piece. From the beginning, we see that Hester Prynne is a young and beautiful woman who has given birth to a child with an unknown father. She is punished by Puritan society by wearing the scarlet letter A on the breast of her dress and remaining on the gallows for three hours. Her hair is a shiny brown and her eyes are deep-set and black, her clothing is rich, she carefully caresses her slender figure. The gallows is a painful task to endure; the townspeople gathered around to gossip and stare at Hester and her newborn child, who she appropriately named Pearl, so named because of her extreme value to her mother. In the clutter of faces in the crowd, young Hester Prynne sees the face of a man with whom she was once very familiar, who we later learn is her real husband, Roger Chillingworth. Her submission to the crowd of Puritan onlookers is heartbreaking to endure, and Hester holds the child close to her heart, a symbolic comparison between the child and the scarlet letter, implying that they are truly both intertwined. Prynne is imprisoned with her son, both of whom are emotionally and physically exhausted from the punishment on the gallows. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, passes by and is charged with being the two's doctor and curing them of their illnesses. She is surprised that he came at a time when she was in such horrendous turmoil. He asks her not to reveal his identity, but also wants to know the identity of her lover, the child's father. He refuses to tell her.