In The Scarlet Letter, what value does Hester place upon her life?

has a
rather ambivalent attitude toward her life's value. In truth, she lives for, and Hawthorne
speculates that if Hester did not have Pearl, she most likely would have been someone completely
different--perhaps even the leader of a religious sect.  His reason for describing her in such a
manner, is that as time passes in the novel, the townspeople come to view Hester as a sincerely
virtuous woman because she does only good for others and yet has no ulterior motive
for...