In the book The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is convicted of adultery and ordered to wear the scarlet letter "A" on her breast as a permanent sign of her sin. Hester is cursed to never take off this badge of shame, and she will not do so until chapter thirteen. As the novel progresses, Hawthorne presents several questions that remain unanswered. How does the nature of the letter "A" seem to change? What role does Hester's response to her situation play in changing the meaning of the letter "A"? How is the letter “A” seen as a symbol of the mysterious connection between human experiences (of a sinful nature) and a kind of wisdom that would be impossible without failure? Why doesn't Hester say who Pearl's father is when she is on the scaffold? Hawthorne doesn't tell us much about Hester's life before the book opens. In fact, the passionate moment between Hester and Arthur that the entire book is centered around was left out. Hawthorne relies more on the emotional and psychological drama surrounding Hester than on action. Hawthorne shows us how extraordinary Hester's character is, revealed through her public humiliation and her isolated life in Puritan society. Her inner strength and compassion may have been there all along, how we don't know because we are told nothing about Hester before the book opens, but the scarlet "A" brings all of these qualities to our attention while we read. the book. Hester is physically described in the first scaffold scene as a tall young woman with a "figure of perfect elegance on a large scale". Her most striking feature is her "dark, abundant hair, so shiny that it radiates the sun with a glow." Her complexion is rich, her eyes are dark and deep and her regular features give her a beautiful face. Compare this to how he looked after seven years of punishment for his sin. Her beautiful hair is hidden under her cap; her beauty and warmth are gone, buried beneath the weight of the elaborate scarlet letter on her chest. When he removes the letter and takes off his cap in chapter 13, he returns to his radiant beauty from seven years earlier. Symbolically, when Hester removes the letter and takes off her hood, she is, in effect, removing the harsh, crude, and unyielding Puritan social and moral structure..