It is true thatwill not
leave the colony because she loves her fellow sinner, 's father. Furthermore, his gaze seems to
provide her with the only relief she can ever feel. The narrator says that she sometimes
"felt an eye -- a human eye -- upon the ignominious brand, that seemed to give a momentary
relief, as if half of her agony were shared." Thus, Hester's only opportunity to experience
any relief from the shame of the scarlet letter is when her co-sinner looks upon it.
Moreover, Boston "had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene
of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length
purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint-like,
because the result of martyrdom." Hester seems to accept the Puritans' idea that she has
committed a sin for which she must atone. She feels that she ought to remain in Boston and
endure the punishment that is designed to offer her a chance to...
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