e accepts the presence of the letter and its significance, its marking of her as a sinner, but there is a humane self-acceptance in her view of her sin which is absent from the Puritans' view of her. Further, in a great irony, Hester herself becomes a counselor to others (presumably Puritans) precisely because she has endured and transcended the condemnation of their Puritan society:
. . . As Hester Prynne had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment, people brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, a s one who had herself gone through a mighty trouble (Scarlet 227).
In other words, Hester lives now, scarlet letter and all, precisely in the selfless and loving way Jesus Christ wanted his followers (including the Puritans) to live. Hawthorne is saying that Hester is the truly faithful Christian, learning from her own sin and subsequent suffering and serving others with a generous compassion, and that the Puritans are cruel traitors to the creed of love and forgi
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