For Hester and the inhabitants of the city, the scarlet letter represents her sin, her punishment and her detachment from the values ​​of the city and society; however, at the end of the novel, it is a liberating symbol. It represents everything Hester went through and everything she learned from it. Familiarity with sin allowed Hester to wander “without rule or guide, in a moral wilderness; vast, intricate, and dark, like the wild forest, in the darkness of which they were now holding a parley that would decide their fate" (134). The scarlet letter also represents Hester's transcendence of Puritan values ​​and punishment. It was meant to be a reminder of her sin every day and something that set her apart from the town in a negative way. Even though it worked that way at first, it eventually turned into something different that Hester could rebel against by claiming it for herself and turning it into a punishment. positive thing