The letter 'A' is an essential symbol in The Scarlet Letter. Throughout the novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne makes sure that the letter appears often enough, so the reader understands the significance found beyond the ambiguity when its purpose is portrayed. Although at the start of the novel it seems that the scarlet letter simply represents Hester Prynne’s sin, as the story progresses that the letter and its meaning are far more deeper than that. In The Scarlet Letter, the letter “A” appears in various forms and at many different points in the story, in order to expose the sin, the mental conditions, the knowledge and the interactions of the main characters of the novel. Due to this, although the story is very ambiguous, the scarlet letter helps us to identify connections between the characters and understand the development of the novel easier. The first time we are introduced to the scarlet letter is at the beginning of the story, when it first comes to existence as solidification of Hester Prynne’s sin. It is a hand sawn scarlet ‘A’ and it represents Hester’s Adultery. At this point of the novel the letter seems to be a straightforward sign of the fact that Hester has committed a crime and that the letter is her punishment, her “token of shame” [Hawthorne 46]. A very important part of this is that Hester herself sawed the scarlet letter that was supposed to ridicule and shame her. This allowed her to make it beautiful and very outstanding, so everyone had the ability to see it. “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold threat, appeared the letter “A”” [42]. Because of this, we can clearly see right from the beginning of the novel, that Hester is trying to disassociate with the puritan society. She does what she is told, but in a way that makes it as far as possible from the puritan expectations. At this point of the story, the letter therefore symbolizes punishment, but also resistance, which Hester shows by “[making] pride out of what they meant for a punishment” [47]. Later in the story when Pearl becomes older, the purpose and the way the puritans view the letter, change. Because Hester doesn't step out of the line any other way than by making the letter eye-catching, the puritan society slowly moves on and forgets about the meaning of the letter. Now, that Hester has been a useful part of the society and blended in, lot of the puritans start to see her letter standing for “Able” instead of ”its original signification” [145,145]. This shows a change in Hester’s character as the fact