Out of the three main characters, it can be said that Hester Prynne is the most successful in the wordly terms as she alone by herself raised her child,Pearl, without any help of Dimmisdale at all and still manage to provide as good as she can to her child. Even though she receive a lot of abuse and mockery, she still brave it through for the sake of her child. Furthermore, she kept her promises of not exposing the identity of the father as she thought it will affect Dimmsdale status as the honorable Reverend towards their society despite he was also guilty of committing the sin with Hester.
Through this novel, we can see that Hester is the most satisfied characters as she managed to run her life alone and without any help the father of her child, Reverend Dimmsdale, due to her uncommonly needlework skill. She is proud that even though she didn't get any help,she still managed to support her family. Thus, this is the source of satisfaction to her in her life
In our opinion, Hester is definitely a strong person without a doubt. As it the was mention before, she alone raises Pearl despite of the abuse and being the outcast of the society. She also didn't give up and still find the way to support the family through her needlework and doing the best she can to raise Pearl. Furthermore, she alone take the punishment and abuse without fear and exposing Dimmsdale.
Meanwhile, the same thing can't also be said toward Roger Chillingworth. He is weak person who the purpose of his life is only to get revenge on Hester and Dimmsdale for the sin they have committed. Due to this purpose, Roger, who once a kind man become evil and twisted soul just because wanting to get a revenge even though he is partly to be blamed for leaving Hester for seven long years.
As for Arthur Dimmsdale, in our opinion, he seem to be a weak character in this novel. This is is because, he let Hester carry the burden alone and let Hester live a tormented life on her own. Even though he try to be courageous and tell the truth about his sin with Hester, he held back and let Hester and the baby receive the punishment on the scaffolds by their self. He, however, deals with his guilt by tormenting himself physically and psychologically, developing a heart condition as a result.
In this novel, gender inequality is shown when Hester is the one being single out and being punished for her wrong doing even though it is not her fault alone. Yet, the Puritan society doesn't seem to care to find out the man who is also as sinful as Hester and rather pleased in blaming Hester alone just because she is a women and the one who is carrying the so called "demon" child.
