In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, the Puritan community banished all forms of sin. Sin was considered evil, being connected to the devil and his dark ways. Hester Prynne, the story's protagonist, was shunned by the rest of the Puritan world after committing the sin of adultery. He lived in a world where he was not accepted. She was isolated from the world around her, having little hope. Throughout the novel, symbols such as the character of the kind woman, the wild rose bush outside the prison doors, and the character of Pearl, Hester Prynne's illegitimate daughter, are used to show that even in a world full of sin and darkness , there is always hope. In The Scarlet Letter hope is symbolized through characters such as the kind woman. After Hester leaves her prison cell in the book's early chapters after spending months there while pregnant, she is forced to stand facing the city holding her illegitimate newborn baby. She is surrounded by people who criticize her. However, there is one woman who doesn't give in to all the gossip. This kind woman, as she is called, defends Hester on two occasions. The first time, the women of the community judged Hester for the crime she committed. Instead of joining their conversation, the young woman told the others: "...cover the mark as you wish, the pain will always be in your heart." (49) Later in the same scene the kind woman shows her compassion a second time, stating, "Oh, peace, neighbors, peace!" whispered their youngest companion; "don't let yourself be heard! Not a stitch in that embroidered letter, but she felt it in her heart." (51) Once again she is the only person to defend Hester. It becomes the symbol of the hope that Hester can one day return to a normal life where people accept her as part of the community and where they do not judge her, a place where she is no longer isolated from the outside world. In a sense the kind woman is Hester Prynne's hope. The second symbol of hope in the sin and darkness of the novel is the wild rose bush that grew outside the prison doors..