the humiliation they believe she should experience.

Secondly, the initial descriptions of the letter and its wearer reveal Hawthorne's own stance on rigid Puritan law. In chapter two, he describes the letter and Hester:

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 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 then follows this with the following description of Hester herself:

Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans, he might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent; something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world.

Through these two descriptions, Hawthorne sets Hester apart from her Puritan society as a rule-breaker, but also as a sacred figure. In doing so he reveals his own disdain for Puritan law, and his support for those who stand against it and follow their heart.

The letter is, as many things in Hawthorne, ambiguous.  Hester creates a symbol that recognizes the right of the society to punish her for a violation of its rules.  On the other hand she makes that symbol beautiful instead of the rag that one of the old maidens says it should be.  She makes it beautiful because she realizes that, although she violated a community standard, she did not violate her own:  "What we did had a consecration of it's own."  This ambiguity permeates most of Hawthorne's work (cf. "Young Goodman Brown"), and is beautifully handled here.

Imprisoned behind the grey iron door, Hester Prynne designs and embroiders the elaborate A which she must wear upon her breast to humiliate and label her as a sinner.  But, in defiance of those who would see her so humiliated and scorned, Hester sews the gilded scarlet letter upon the bodice of her splendid dress that is "greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptary regulations of the colony."  Hawthorne writes,

Her attire, which, indeed, she had wrought for the occasion, in prison, and had modelled much after her own fancy, seemed to express the attitude of her spirit, the desperate recklessness of her mood, by its wild and picturesque peculiarity....both men and women, who had been familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne, were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time--was that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom.  It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.

The old gossips perceive Hester's gestures

as a measure to laugh in the faces of our godly magistrates and make a pride out of what they...meant for a punishment.

Called by critics the first feminist of American literature, Hester Pyrnne of The Scarlet Letter refuses to have her essence, her passionate nature dulled and subjugated by the confinements of Puritanism. Her action may not be one of defiant rebellion, but it is one of rebellion of spirit against the greyness of life within a Puritan colony. As a symbol of her passionate nature, the child Pearl is dressed in clothes worthy of the plumage of a bird, according to the Reverend Mr. Wilson in Chapter VIII.

That the scarlet A , stitched with "fantastic flourishes" of gold thread reflects the life of Hester is evidenced in the latter chapters of Hawthorne's novel.  For, after she has left America with Pearl, she returns alone to her little cottage on the edge of the colony, and is observed one day with the scarlet letter on her breast:

And Hester Prynne had returned, and taken up her long-forsaken shame!...But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester's life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too.

As a symbol, the A that Hester wears changes its meaning throughout the Hawthorne's novel.  Hester initially rebels against its significance, but from wearing it for so many years, she does lose her color and fades in her beauty.  Nevertheless, the letter never "does its office"; Hester does not conform to the Puritan colony; instead, she establishes herself as a humble nurse, a healer of hearts and souls, and the letter assumes the initialization of an angel of mercy  "with the dreary burden of a heart unyielded."  Women come to her and

Hester counselled them, as best she might.  She assured them, too, of her firm belief, that, at some brighter period, when the world should have grown ripe for it, in Heaven's own time, a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness....The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy....

Immediately it would seem that the embroidery is ultimately a rejection of the community's views of her.  This is supposed to be a symbol of shame and her decorating of it sends the message that she does not care.  The letter is draw attention to her as a sinner.  The town assumes she will be too ashamed to show her face in public any more (they think she should be this ashamed) and the punishment of the letter should cause her to retreat to the shadows.  The flamboyant embroidery draws even more attention to it - she decorates it in a way that would be innappropriate for the clothing of any commoner in the colony, let alone the biggest sinner.  By doing this she creates a reason for inviting even more attention to herself - so that the fact that this is punishment is downplayed.

On the other hand, we see through Hester's actions throughout the rest of the story, that she truly does feel it is her duty to repent and live in this permanent penance.  In this way, the embroidery seems more like an acceptance of her punishment that she uses her skill at the needle to fully embrace.

Hester Prynne's scarlet "A," as seen in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, symbolizes many different things within the novel. As the novel progresses, the symbolism of the scarlet "A" does as well. 

In the beginning, the "A" is meant to illustrate Prynne's adulterous affair. As her punishment, Prynne is forced to bear the scarlet letter as a symbol of her sin. The "A" stands for adultery. 

Over time, the meaning of the letter changes. As Prynne proves her ability to face conflict, she proves (time and time again) her ableness to survive. Therefore, the scarlet letter's meaning changes. No longer a sign of adultery, the letter signals Prynne's ableness to survive. 

Later in the novel, the meaning changes again. As the novel progresses the impact of the letter wears off. In fact, when seen by the Native Americans (in chapters 21 and 22), they believe her to be someone of importance because of the letter she bears. 

Essentially, the letter symbolizes the ever-changing nature of symbols in society. What the letter was meant to signify (sin) does not withstand time. In fact, the symbol changes as the townspeople change (mentally about Prynne). 

The "A" in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter signifies to the townspeople—literally—"adultery." However, it is the long-suffering patient, kind and gentle way that Hester bears this stigma for seven long years (alone, even while Dimmesdale's reputation remains untarnished in that same community) that gives the scarlet letter a meaning of her own. Hester definitely is weighed down by the censorship that follows her through town. She never, however, gives in to any maliciousness or bitterness. We can assume that she does this in great part for the sake of her daughter, Pearl. She does all she can to make sure her daughter is not punished by Hester's sin. And in the end, there is every indication that she will be able to live a life of happiness, untouched by the scarlet letter—primarily (we can assume) because of her mother's extraordinarily enduring and admirable response to the weight of sin associated with it.

Hawthorne describes Hester's exemplary behavior in several places. At one point he speaks of how the townspeople have come to look at her:

Her face, so long familiar to the townspeople, showed the marble quietude which they were accustomed to behold there. It was like a mask; or, rather, like the frozen calmness of a dead woman's features...

Any inner turmoil Hester feels is guarded from her face; in this her peers can find no fault in her.

As Hester imagines leaving the town with Dimmesdale toward the end of the story, she ponders how she had been...

...sustaining the gaze of the multitude through seven miserable years as a necessity, a penance, and something which it was a stern religion to endure...

Hester and Pearl might have moved away. There is no indication that she imagines a world when she and Dimmesdale will be reunited prior to their talk in the forest. Still she stays and bears up under it with patience and goodness.

In [the] matter of Hester Prynne, there was neither irritation or irksomeness. She never battled with the public, but submitted, uncomplainingly, for what she suffered.

Since being punished for her adultery, Hester had lived a life of humility and virtue. She did not take exception when a pauper refused clothing she had sewn by hand. When disease visited the town, Hester took her place at the side of the sick to aid them.

In such emergencies, Hester's nature showed itself warm and rich...

Even at the end, when Dimmesdale confesses (as he lies dying on the scaffold), Hester comes to his side, regardless of the renewal of the shame of the "A" sewn to her bodice. She and Pearl leave the town after Dimmesdale's death, however years later Hester returns to the town. (It can be assumed that Pearl has grown up.) Hester comes back to the quiet and lonely life she knew, still wearing her scarlet letter. People are drawn to her to share their worries and heartaches, to ask her advice. 

She comforted and counselled them as best she might.

Hester takes the letter as a burden of penitence—as it is meant to be. However, she also makes it symbolic of self-sacrifice, tolerance, kindness and virtue. In her, there is also forgiveness. And while her existence is a lonely one, she bears the ignomimy of her sin with grace and goodwill. These are all the things that can be attributed to the scarlet "A," which go far beyond the original intent of placing the symbol upon Hester Prynne.