The Scarlet Letter was supposed to remind Hester and the townspeople of her sin and make her sorry about her act, but as Hawthorne writes, “The scarlet letter had not done its office” (160). She shows that she thinks the act she and Dimmsdale committed was not evil when she tells him, ” What we did had a consecration of its own”(186). Instead of seeing her act as impulsive, as an act of passion, Hester now inwardly decides that the act was not such an evil sin, and she is not sorry for committing it. Hester’s mood changes “from passion and feeling to thought” (158). In the second part of the book, Hester’s views change: she is no longer sorry for what she has done. Hester’s changing attitudes reveal that while she sees her act as a sin, she believes her punishment was unjustified, even though she pretends to be punishing herself even more. She believes that there are others who have committed adultery but have not been caught because they were in different situations than Hester. Hester also shows some anger about her punishment. She continues sewing, though, which seems to symbolize that she would commit adultery again. Consequently, Hester to sees herself and everything she enjoys, such as sewing, as sinful. Hester believes that her adultery was a sin, but the book makes it clear that she enjoyed it. This comment means that the real reason for her staying is that Reverend Dimmsdale, the father of her child, lives there and she hopes to someday marry him. To the contrary, as Hawthorne describes, her real reason for staying is that “There dwelt, there trod the feet of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union, that, unrecognized on earth, would bring them together before the bar of final judgment, and make their that marriage altar, for a joint futurity of endless retribution” (84). But this belief only covers her actual feelings. This belief gives the impression that she views her action as a sin and feels a need to further punish herself. She decides to stay because she makes herself believe that the town “has been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment” (84).
Hester moves to a cottage on the outskirts of Boston, but because her sentence does not restrict her to the limits of the Puritan settlement, Hester could return to Europe to start over. In chapter five Hester’s attitudes are the same but Hawthorne shows that these attitudes are not stable and are susceptible to change. At this point Hester feels that her actions were evil and were her fault, therefore she is sorry for committing adultery. This evil deed, in Hester’s eyes, causes Pearl to act sinful, so Hester feels overwhelming guilt. In chapter six Hawthorne writes that Hester knows “her deed had been evil” (92). In chapter four she tells her husband that it was her fault for committing adultery when she says, “I have greatly wronged thee” (79).
In the first part, covering the first six chapters, Hester thinks of her action as a sin.