"The Scarlet Letter" Character Types.

             The term "character type" does not have an exact definition and therefore can mean something different to each person. My definition of "character type" is what a person or thing in a story ( character) is or represents based on their actions ine the story. It's the core of what they are. A character's type can be defined by many factors such as their their actions, emotions, appearnce, etc. All characters add their own element to the story and no two character scan be exactly the same. Every character brings something different to the story. Hester stands out as avery brave and independent individual. Her beauty and uniqueness separates her from the rest of the Puritans. She represents the revealed sinner, which makes her unique because even though all of the Puritans had sinned only Hester"s sin was revealed to the entire town. She is the strongest character in the book. Through her needlework she represents the artist. Hester also represents unrestricted human nature. Throughout the novel Hester"s actions make it possible for her letter "A" to mean many things other than adultery, such as: Able, Affection, Artist, Angel, Antagonism, America, Alone, Anguish, and Atonement. Hester survives through all of the hard times she has to deal with because of her sin and never changes her attitude or the way she acts even when the townspeople begin to think of her scarlet letter as a good thing. She also takes full punishment for her sin even though she thinks of escaping, she is too good and strong of a person to run away from her punishment. Hester is also a symbol for the New World, which she returns to at the end of the novel. This symbolism is based on the fact that in the New World many values were not taken as seriously, punishments began to be less harsh, people began to develop their own belifs and not just go by what they had been brought up to do, and people began to live with the sins they made and overcome them instead being killed for them or letting their sin entirely change their life and ruin everything they had worked for just because of one mistake they made in their life.