Scarlet Letter

Metaphor A beautiful puritan woman full of strong passions, Hester Prynne is the main character in the story. Employed as the village seamstress, she is strong and caring, helping anyone she can when he or she is in need. With a penitent heart, Hester travels through the story becoming only a shadow of her former passionate loving self. The letter that Hester was forced to wear upon her bosom, the scarlet letter was not only …

…in the forest where Mistress Hibbens holds her witchcraft meetings, where she expects to meet the ?Dark Man? (Ch.8). Light is associated with openness and truth. When Hester steps out of the dark jail into the blinding sunlight at the beginning of the novel, her crime and her shame become public for all to see. Similarly, at the end of the novel, Dimmesdale confess his sin in the light of day for all to see.