The heroines are portrayed as sturdy women, when faced with danger or adversity, they show courage and self-sacrifice. Hester Prynne, the female protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, is forced to wear a scarlet A on her chest due to her affair with the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester's first impression is that she is a strong woman, rooted in her decision to keep the father of her child a secret, suffering the consequences. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne develops Hester, broken and drowned in her sin, surviving only by having hope and stifling her emotions. Hester is shrouded in her sin, sees it daily in her daughter, feels the tension of society, and lives with the penalties of her actions. He could have run away with Pearl, leaving the shame and persecution behind and starting over. But Hester doesn't; she remains in town, exiling herself and Pearl to a tiny cottage in the woods on the outskirts of town. This is one of the many reasons why Hester is rightfully nicknamed a tragic heroine. Hester hoped for a better future, one that involved a more welcoming culture and a life with Dimmesdale and Pearl, so she abandoned her emotions to escape the pain of reality. The opening of The Scarlet Letter depicts a rose bush scene, so hitting it you can't help but be in awe of it. In contrast to the rose bush are “gigantic pines and oaks that once shaded it” (Hawthorne 34). The rose bush symbolizes Hester and the trees symbolize society, powerful, threatening and forbidding culture. Hester's simple beauty sets her apart from the brutal women of the town, creating an even greater divide between Hester and the Puritans. She is publicly humiliated and forced to wear her letter, to cast it aside, and to further alienate… middle of paper… the human experience and complicates and humanizes our approach to it” (Seymour Gross 358).Works citeBaym, Nina. "Nature Contested." A Critical Edition of Norton Croom Beatty, E. Hudson Long and Seymour Gross. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company, 1978. 2nd ed. 312. Print.grosso, Seymour. "Loneliness, Love and Anguish": The Tragic Drawing of the Scarlet Letter. critical edition of Norton: The Scarlet Letter. Eds. Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, E. Hudson Long and Seymour Gross. W. W. Norton & Company, 1978. 2nd ed. 312. Print Scarlet. New York: Dover Thrift Editions, 1994. Print.