The character who changes the most dramatically is Hester. As she stands on the scaffold at beginning of the novel, her attitude is haughty and she seems oblivious to the consequences of her "crime". However, as soon as she spots Chillingworth in the crowd, her behavior begins to change. She uses the scarlet letter and her position as an outcast to learn. She helps the poor, acts as a midwife and generally does such good work that the meaning of the letter "A" changes from adultery to able and finally to angel.
Dimmesdale, while trying to hide his sin, suffers tremendous guilt.He mutilated himself an his guilt causes him untold mental pain. By the time he confesses, the stress of the confession causes him to die.
At the beginning of the novel, Chillingworth was described as a good man. However, his search for revenge, turns him into a deformed "leech". When Dimmesdale mounts the scaffold, Chillingworth has become so dependent on his revenge that he tells Dimmesdale, "thou hast escaped me." A year later, the "leech" has shriveled up and died because he has nothing to live for.
After seven year of being denied by by her father, Pearl is finally acknowledged by him. Before that, she is known as an "elf-child" whose behavior is so odd that people think her father is really the devil. However, at the end of the novel, she inherits Chillingworth's money, goes back to England with Hester and marries well. Thus the trauma of her childhood ends and she lives a happy life.
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