arance and natural personality of Hester. A new person is revealed as Hester takes off her cap and lets down her hair. Once again the reader can view the true Hester, who had been hidden by the shame of the scarlet letter. The Hester that is revealed in the forest is the same woman that was seen in the beginning of the novel. She once again became the beautiful, attractive person who is not afraid to show her hair and to display her beauty. The sunlight that once seemed to run away from her, now sought her out. Her sex, her youth, and the whole richness of her beauty, came back from what men call the irrevocable past and clustered themselves, with her maiden hope, and a happiness before unknown, within the magic circle of this hour (186). Dimmesdale also comes back to life for a short period of time. Hester’s talk of leaving Boston had given him hope for the future. He now had energy, something that he had not had in quite a long time. Do I feel joy again? . . . Me thought the germ of it was dead in me! O Hester, thou are my better angel! I seem to have flung myself- sick, sin-stained, and sorrow blackened-down upon these forest leaves, and to have risen up all made anew, and with new powers to glorify Him that hath been merciful! This is already the better life! Why did we not find it sooner (185).The Puritan society can be unsympathetic to one’s inner feelings. Hawthorne created the forest to give the characters a place to escape. It was a place where they could express their true thoughts and feelings, and not be worried about how society would look upon them. There are no restraints in the natural world. People are free to do and act as they please....
