The Scarlet Letter The Effects of Sin on Hester Prynne Nathaniel Hawthorne believed that his task was to analyze the effects of sin, whether thought or committed, on human heart and mind. Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter deals with many themes, the most powerful of which is sin. In this novel, Hester Prynne becomes a highly respected person in a Puritan society by overcoming a constant reminder of her sin, a scarlet letter A that she always wears on her chest. This object on "her breast"; however, it does exactly the opposite of its initial purpose. In the end, Hester turns all the odds against her through her courage, pride, and commitment. Hester went beyond the letter of the law and did everything that was asked of her to prove that she was "capable." He comes from a poor but gentrified English family, having lived in a "poverty-stricken, decayed house of gray stone". appearance, but retains a half-obliterated shield above the doorway, as a sign of ancient kindness." But even without that specific indication of her noble birth, the reader would know that Hester is a lady, by her bearing and her pride. Especially in the second chapter , when she bravely faces the humiliation of the gallows: "And never had Hester Prynne appeared more ladylike, in the ancient interpretation of the term, than when she came out of the prison," Hester's daughter Pearl is "a blessing and a reminder of her sin ." As if the scarlet A wasn't punishment enough, "there was a brat of that infernal race" who would remind Hester of what had happened in the past. The "brat" could have been given to Governor Bellingham, yet Hester he proclaimed that Pearl “is my happiness!…You won't take her! I will die first!" Not a single person in Boston, nor Hester herself, thought highly of the little girl, yet Hester still refused to let Pearl go. Hester only carried the baby around because it was a direct reflection of her sin and throwing away the her sin as freely as giving it would have been unfair and unjust to Hester and Pearl. From now on Hester would be continually and proudly close to Pearl. Hester went against the grain in everything she did Never completed a job badly.