The narrator tells us in the final chapter that "Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence." In other words, Hester had chosen to return to Boston because this is the place where the most defining events of her life had taken place, and she feels the need to allow the remainder of her life to play out here. Yes, it had been the place of her...
The narrator tells us in the final chapter that "Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence." In other words, Hester had chosen to return to Boston because this is the place where the most defining events of her life had taken place, and she feels the need to allow the remainder of her life to play out here. Yes, it had been the place of her sin, but it had also been the place of her love and her loss. Here, in Boston, she can best remember that love and be close to it, even though Dimmesdale is dead and gone. The fact that, after Hester dies, she is buried next to Dimmesdale in the King's Chapel cemetery shows the connection she felt to him even after his death.
Further, the narrator says that "there was a more real life for Hester" in Boston than there could be anywhere else in the world. Here, she has an identity, and people come to her -- especially women -- for advice and comfort because they know that she has been through so much difficulty and hardship. It seems not to feel honest to Hester for her to live her life somewhere else. Her time in Boston has become such a part of her identity that she seems not to know how to live without that identity, and it allows her to actually do some good in the world.
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