Hester Prynne was like no other woman of her day. Being ostracized from Puritan society for committing the unpardonable sin of adultery and henceforth spending her life in contempt, Ms. Prynne lived in duality, having love and compassion for a man, who was not her husband, and a daughter from this union while living the socially shameful life of an adulteress. It is from these contrary aspects in which the novel portrays her life and that of her lover as a confluence of both contentment and apprehension. Illustrating how Hester's life consists of the scorn for her actions yet also reminding us--the reader--of the gratifications she received, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter converges reactions of pleasure and disquietude in the reader.

Hester raising her daughter Pearl and their relationship serve as a prime example of this healthy confusion. It can be safely...