In the novel The Scarlet Letter, justice is important in the life of Hester. Society’s Justice was applied on her because of her sin, and throughout the novel, the role of society’s justice changes in her life while she tries to compensate for her sin.

Throughout the novel, Hester is seen as an extreme sinner. She has gone against the Puritan ways by committing adultery. That irrevocably harsh sin forced Hester to wear a symbol of shame for the rest of her life. “It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself”(chapter 2).The letter was Hester’s life time punishment. The letter is heavy to carry especially with the threatening eyes of the town’s people. Justice played its role on Hester by punishing her and leaving her fellow sinner free. However, Hester’s punishment did not stop there. She was forced to move out of the city and live in the forest alone with her child. On top of all that, the townspeople had the greatest punishment on her which is leaving her alone and having a threatening and watching eye over her.

Even though Hester’s punishment was very shameful, Hester did not seem to worry about it that much. Hester was not bothered by her punishment or what the townspeople thought of her. Instead she was proud about it and she did not fear showing the letter on her clothes. Hester made a living for her and Pearl by making clothes and selling them to everyone in town. She was a very skilled sewer and used her skill to make a living. She also sewed the letter A on her clothes but she did not make it small or tried to hide it, instead she always made it big and colorful that is sticks out from the rest of her clothes. By having the letter on her chest and making it better looking with colors and size, Hester shows that she is not ashamed of her sin. Instead Hester is proud of it and she wears it all the time and makes it pretty so that everyone notices is. Hester has moved from the level of punishment to a level of acceptance. After some time even the townspeople started to accept Hester back in their society. They also started to not think of the scarlet letter as a sign of shame (Adultery), instead they started to think of it as Able. That teaches Hester to not be ashamed of her sin anymore, because she is the one that chose to do it and also she is the only one that can compensate for it.

Throughout the novel, Hester was punished by having to wear the scarlet letter A on her chest all the time and also moving to live alone in the forest. However, Hester was not bothered by her punishment. Instead she starts to accept it and reaches a level where she sews the letter so big on her chest so that everyone can see it. By having the big letter Hester shows that she is not ashamed of her sin and that she knows what she did and let her actions speak for her. Her acceptance and proudness of the letter changed how the townspeople view her and now she turned from a sinner to a normal helping person.