The Letter of Shame

I remember reading this when I was younger, it's interesting to me how we can read something when we are younger and we think we remember it perfectly, then we read it again later in life and it's nothing how we remember it. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one that I read when I was younger and remembered it entirely different than what it actually was. As I read the Scarlet Letter, I realized this was that way too. All I remembered was Hester Prynne being a bad lady, and because she did bad things she had to wear the red A. Reading it now, I get a totally different perspective from it, what I took away from it was that Hester wasn't a bad lady, she was in a bad situation, To me it's a story of two people who under different circumstances could be together, but instead she is ridiculed and tormented while her husband who doesn't really love her anyway is out for revenge. To be in what seems a hopeless situation, Hester keeps going, even though she has to wear this letter, she still wants to be the best mother she can be, and does charitable work to try and redeem herself, I think more for her daughters sake. It takes a strong person to be so wronged, yet still willing to do things to help other people. This story really took on a different meaning to me this time around, we have all done things we regret, how horrible would it be if we lived in a time that we had to walk around with our sins on our chest.