ting for her natural rights and freedoms." Compared to the "tight-mouthed Puritans" she is a true woman. She knows that she has committed a crime and has accepted it and learned to live with it. Hester has even tried to relieve herself of the sin by doing good deeds for the Puritan society, although they have treated her with such disrespect, knowing that they will never truly accept her. A symbol is shown in Hesters dress on the day she stand for the first time on the pillory:"The young woman the mother on the child stood fully revealed before the crowd, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smiles, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her towns people and neighbors. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it has all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony" (Hawthorne 57).The symbol that this creates is one that she creates for herself, it expresses her desire and individuality.Dimmesdale symbolizes the coward in the story as well as the hypocrite. Dimmesdale continues to try to make peace with God, although he never will. Dimmesdale cannot make peace with God for one simple fact, he does not know how to do so. He not only does not know how to, he does not care if he lives or dies, and by the end of the novel he is so weak he can barely lift himself. The sin has engulfed him into a void that he does not know how to leave. When he meets Hester in the forest, he sees it as a way out. He is so weak and willing to try anything that he accepts Hesters plan without much hesitation. Yet, being the hypocrite that he is, he turn...
