In The Scarlet Letter, when Hester left prison, what did she have to look forward to?

You might want to
analyse Chapter Five to answer this question, which narrates what happens to Hester at the end
of her time in prison, and, in particular, the kind of future she could expect after being
identified as a public figure of shame. Clearly, in the Puritan society in which Hester lives,
such an act of bearing a child out of wedlock is to invite social censure, and this is something
that the narrator strongly indicates in terms of the kind of future thatcould expect. Note what
we are told at the beginning of this chapter:

The days of
the future would toil onward; still with the same burden for her to take up and bear along with
her, but never to fling down' for the accumulating days and added years would pile up their
misery upon the heap of shame. Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would
become the general symbol at which the preacher and morlaist might point, and in which they
might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion.

Thus Hester's future does not look too bright. She can only expect
to be singled out and looked upon as a bad example, of what happens if you let sin control your
life. She will be objectified thanks to the scarlet letter that she is forced to bear on her
breast, and refered to by preachers as an example of what can happen if you do not remain
upright and moral.