Hester Prynne's Appearance and Character

In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the outer appearances to tell the reader about the inner character of certain figures in the book.  Hawthorne describes Hester Prynne as "tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale.  She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam; and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes" (Hawthorne 31, 32).  Because Hester is described as the standard for beauty, (i.e tall, long black hair, symmetrical face) Hawthorne is keying the reader in that she is also the standard for morality.  She is also described as "more ladylike, in the antique interpretation of the term, than as she issued from the prison" (Hawthorne 32).  Hester is beautiful and keeps her high moral standard despite the conditions that she was in for many months.  Hawthorne shows through his physical descriptions of her how even though the Puritan society marks Hester as impure and sinful, she has a high moral standard.