"Strength in the Face of Suffering" - The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne: An Essay about how suffering and the burden of wearing the "A", changed Hester's life.

It is often said that pain and suffering can strengthen the character and spirit of a person many times beyond the regular growth of the human soul. This is very true of Hester Prynn, a young and lonely woman, who is convicted of the unforgivable sin of adultery; which is magnified many, many times more because of the time and society in which she lives. Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter, is the story of a …

…worse than Hester's public sin. Hester was able to deal with her sin and public humiliation much more effectively than the minister, because she knew that there was no way to escape it. She knew that she would have to live her life as if nothing had changed; her only difference with any normal woman was that she wore a scarlet letter upon her chest; nevertheless, she learned to wear it proudly and with dignity.