Why do you suppose Hester returns to Salem? What might be Hawthorne’s point about sin, repentance, and redemption? In chapter 24.

With Pearl happily married and living in Europe, Hester feels the need to return to Salem and actively repay the debt of her sin by serving the poor and sickly. Because of her actions Hester is not remembered as a marked woman, but rather the epitome of a fine and upstanding Christian woman. I think that Salem is also, for better or for worse, a place that defined her. She returns to the place that made her what she had become.