Answer:
When Hester comes outside of the jail to face the crowd in chapter 2,Hawthorne illustrates Hester's scarlet letter: "that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself"(51). Hester decorating her letter suggests not only that she is rebellious,Godless,and shameless, but also that Hester believes that she is better than the labels that the community is trying to put on her. The description that the ornate letter took her "out of the ordinary relations with humanity" is literally saying that the embroidered letter makes Hester appear, in a sense, above the rest of the crowd. One of the "old dames" in the crowd even shouted about "Madam Hester's rich gown"(51). Hawthorne uses adjectives like "rich" to describe Hester to reiterate the underlying theme of Hester's class compared to the classes of the other characters.
