How Is Hester Prynne A Dynamic Character

Although Hester Prynne is beautiful, her beauty barely compares to her strength in character. Even when brutally punished for her crime and publicly humiliated by being made wear the scarlet letter for adultery she does not break. Through all this she remains who she is: a strong, humble, kind, proud, and loyal young woman. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses this character to represent the archetypal hero, while also making her a relatable asset throughout the novel.

Hester Prynne is a woman of true selflessness. Throughout the work she is constantly ridiculed as a harlot, and perceived as an unfit role model. "In our nature, however, there is a provision, alike marvellous and merciful, that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it” (Hawthorne, ch. 2). This suffering was taken upon by Ms. Prynne as she was chastised by the townspeople. The archetype that Prynne represents is that of a martyr. She finds herself in various amounts of trouble that are, in truth, not her fault entirely. For example, she is sentenced to wear the red ‘A’ across her chest as a symbol of her extreme crime of adultery

She continues to grow for the duration of the book. Starting out as a prideful and somewhat bitter young woman, she blossoms into a self-righteous, independent, and both humble and confident woman. She was once an shunned woman who had nothing, and no one, save a little devil child that seemed to only create trouble for her. However, Hester takes her punishment, and all of the seemingly awful attributes of her life and uses them as a fuel for her drive to improvement, and self-redemption. This redemption is not solely for her peers but for herself. She needs to reassure herself that she is, in fact, a strong woman, who is capable of preserving her image, and the character she wishes to