Shifting Realities in The Scarlet Letter

In concluding "The Custom House," the unnamed narrator and eventual (purported) writer of The Scarlet Letter observes, after a drawn out, at times baffling expository sequence, that his time at the custom house is vanished, and that he is now "a citizen of somewhere else" (476). The same might be said of Hester Prynne. She is effectively cast out of society, forced to bear a prominent mark of shame for the rest of her days. There is, however, a shift that occurs in this branding. Though she still bears the humiliation of displaying her adultery at all times, she also manages to, through impressive composure and poise, maintain a dignity that transforms her burden into something honorable. Indeed, Prynne's life after being released from prison is likened to gaining citizenship in "the forestland," a place not entirely positive in tone but not entirely negative either (494). It is here, in this new citizenship, that she further shifts the bonds of her estrangement. The sewn, scarlet "A" becomes a mark of her prowess with a needle, the very object that is meant to isolate her enticing customers, namely "the dames of a court" looking to add fine needlework to their "fabrics of silk and gold" (495). Prynne, whether she means to or not, converts the ignominious to a source of strength.