Abstract The topic of this essay is Hester Prynne’s life and character. She is the main character of the Scarlett Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story is about her sin and her life after the public pillory. Based on the book there is a search for the fact that how she could go on with her life after humiliation. How she could survive alone with a baby? Furthermore the aim of this work is to find the differences and similarities between the women’s status in the 17th century and in the 21st century. How has the seriousness of her crime changed during the centuries? During research we have to take into consideration that religion and politics take effect on women’s status in the society. Society make rules and laws. Society defines how people have to act. It decides which things are moral and which not. Moreover in the society men and women are not equal. So we also have to find out that how strong the influence of the society was in the 17th century and how strong it is in the 21th century. The other question is that how morals have changed during centuries. In the essay there will be a comparison between Hester Prynne’s life and an imagined, everyday woman from the 21th century. It will go step by step and show the religion, political, social and historical backgrounds of the two women, and there reactions on them. So at the end we can find the similarities and differences between them and we can recognize how women’s role has changed in our society. Theory Hester Prynne is one of the first individual women and a great survivor. At first she was able to establish a new life in the New World alone. Then she could start again after committing sin. She was able to regain the respect of the society again without any help. When Hester arrived to Boston colony she was totally alone. Her husband sent her ahead. She had to find her place in a New World where strict religious rules were applied. As one solution she looked to Arthur Dimmesdale who was a Puritan minister for comfort and spiritual guidance. Their solace became passion and resulted in the sin of adultery and the birth of their daughter, Pearl. This sin had a huge impact on them and changed their lives forever. This sin made her into the woman with whom the reader is familiar. Hester stood on the scaffold, exposed to public humiliation, and wore a scarlet letter on her dress for the rest of her life as a sign of shame. Although she did not commit the adultery alone, she refused to tell her lover’s name. “Woman, transgress not beyond the limits of Heaven’s mercy!” Cried the Reverend Mr. Wilson, more harshly than before. “That little babe hath been gifted with a voice to second and confirm the counsel which thou hast heard. Speak out the name! That, and thy repentance, may avail to take the scarlet letter off thy breast” “Never!” replied Hester Prynne, looking, not at Mr. Wilson, but into the deep and troubled eyes of the younger clergymen. “It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!” (pg. 58, The Scarlett Letter, N.H 1994, Penguin Popular Classics) We can see how determined was Hester. It did not matter how many times they assaulted her she did not answer. She tried to protect her lover even if that meant to suffer alone. She was left alone two times. At first her husband left her alone. He sent her to an unknown country without any companion. Then her lover surveyed how she stood in front of the public with her child and suffered from the public shame. However she did not care about that. After her term of imprisonment was over, Hester was free to go anywhere in the world, yet she did not leave Boston, although it was not banned for her to move into another town or country. Instead of leaving the whole situation behind her, she chose to move into a small, seaside cott