Hester...

[katy07]

i gotta project due monday. Do u know of any good quotes that describe Hester and her charater in the novel??
any little bit helps. Thanks!

[mono]

Hello, katy07, welcome to the forum.
What an interesting essay for school of one of my favorite fictional characters. A few quotes that I think may help:

Of Hester's confidence and free will: "I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time." (source: Anna Freud [1895-1982])
Of Hester's alleged crime: "When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion." (source: C.P. Snow [1905-1980])
Of Hester's persistence: "Energy and persistence conquer all things." (source: Benjamin Franklin [1706-1790])
Of Hester's suffering: "In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying." (source: Bertrand Russell [1872-1970])
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it." (source: Helen Keller [1880-1968])

If you want to find more quotes similar to the ones above, I found all of them at this site.

These two, most of all, from Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), in his famous essay "Self-Reliance," would definitely apply to Hester Prynne:
"Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members."
"It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men; in their religion; in their education; in their pursuits; their modes of living; their association; in their property; in their speculative views."

Good luck!