"She was also ladylike, after the manners of feminine kindness of those days; characterized by a certain state and dignity, rather than by the delicate, evanescent and indescribable grace which is now and ever Hester Prynne she had appeared more ladylike, in the ancient interpretation of the term, than when she emerged from prison, and those who had known her before, and expected to see her overshadowed and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even astonished, to see how her beauty shone and formed an aura of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was shrouded" - this is almost the first description of the main heroine that the reader receives. Hester Prynne is undeterred by the serious crime she is accused of. He is heading towards the gallows with his head held high and his gaze confident. But why? Didn't he commit an adulterous act, which came to light throughout the society in which he had lived? Didn't she give birth to an illegitimate child? Shouldn't he have worn on his chest the immutable sign of his misfortune - the scarlet letter A? She did, but she still had reason to be proud and graceful. Hester was in the midst of her journey of self-discovery. Hester was a passionate person and being passionate about someone or something was a natural state of being. But according to the Puritan society where “religion and law were almost identical” passion is sinful. And how could the denial of something he felt be true? Didn't the denial of passion deny the truth about Hester? By not letting go of passion, by not committing the “crime” Hester committed, she would become one of the “matrons” with “well-developed busts and round, ruddy cheeks.” And that… middle of paper… But the passions themselves awoke in her soul, rocking it, lashing it, as the waves crashed daily over her beautiful body. She was shaking, she was suffocating and the tears were blinding her." The literature knows other examples of stories that also describe women's desire for self-realization, independence and self-confidence. Edna's story, for example, is very similar to the story of Anna Karenina. But for me, I prefer to achieve self-discovery not through passion towards men – I want the independence to be with the man I want to be -, but through self-motivation, hard work and tenacity (a great example of this would be Jane Austin). I'm not saying that our heroines didn't possess those characteristics, but in most cases their lover was number one for them, and only at the end of the stories do they reach the level of self-confidence even without their man aside..