Hester Prynne: "The First Real Heroine of American Fiction"

The main word I would use to describe Hester Prynne would be strength. Through her strength we see so many different things; it helps to illustrate the weakness of the Puritan society along with the power that can be brought out of a common woman. Her punishment was regarded as severe, mostly because of the shame it caused, but when she is presented with the option of possibly getting rid of the scarlet letter by naming the father of her child she refuses protecting the man; "I will not speak! ... And my child must seek a heavenly Father; she shall never know an earthly one!" We later discover that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is the father of little Pearl but long before this fact is known to the reader he says: "She will not speak!... Wondrous strength and generosity of a woman's heart. She will not speak!" Here he illustrates how grateful and amazed he is by Hester's strength which is the only thing keeping him from being hanged. This isn't said outright but I think it's a safe assumption based on the Puritan society. She was strong to begin with but this woman is basically forced into exile and is the subject of mockery, but her spirit never breaks; "She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness... The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong." Hester never backs down from her punishment, in fact at one point she clings to it as if it is her sense of identity. By the end of the novel Hester is known for her kindness instead of the scarlet letter. Her strength ends up making the punishment of the scarlet letter obsolete. Hester Prynne was by no means innocent, and she never tried to play the victim, she stood up and faced her punishment and for that reason she is the strongest female character I have ever heard of and, adultery aside, she would be a wonderful role model to any young girl.