The message of the book is that she who is branded evil by a self-described Christian community may, in fact, be the most Christian member of that community. In a final great irony, Hester herself by the end of the book becomes a counselor to others, including the very Puritans who had judged and marked her, precisely because she has accepted, endured, and transcended condemnation at the hands of their Puritan society:

. . . As Hester Prynne had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment, people brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, as one who had herself gone through a mighty trouble (Hawthorne 185).

Hester, still marked by the scarlet letter, lives her life precisely in the loving and forgiving way Jesus Christ taught his followers to live. The message of the book might be, He who is without sin cast the first stone. Tellingly, like the woman in the Bible who was about to be stoned for her sexual activities, Hester also develops into a genuinely spiritual individual. She becomes the truly faithful Christian, learning from her own sin and subsequent suffering and serving others with a generous compassion. The Puritans, on the other hand, are cruel traitors to the creed of love and forgiveness they profess to ch

Bloom, Harold, ed. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. New York: Chelsea, 1986.

Hester tries to teach Dimmesdale what she has taught herself about repentance and forgiveness: "You have deeply and sorely repented. Your sin is left behind you" (Hawthorne 138). However, Dimmesdale has condemned himself, a victim of the Puritanism Hester has always defied.

That "haughty smile" and unabashed look are evidence that Hester stands in defiance of the strict standards of behavior the community sets forth. However, she is not so much in defiance that she refuses to wear the letter. In fact, she has herself sewn on the letter, in accordance with the judgment against her for her adultery, but she has elaborated on the judgment (and the letter) in a way which itself defies that judgment:

the dark-haired Hester Prynne, emerging to mount the pillory, babe in arms, is presented as a virtual madonna, despite the token of self-denunciation which she has embroidered into her attire (Levin 74).

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 had the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel

When one reads the passage itself, however, suggestions of a far more complex and down-to-earth character appear: "She took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet with a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours" (Hawthorne