"On this public holiday, as on all other occasions, for seven years past, Hester was clad in a garment of coarse gray cloth. Not more by its hue than by some indescribable peculiarity in its fashion, it had the effect of making her fade personally out of sight and outline; while, again, the scarlet letter brought her back from this twilight indistinctness, and revealed her under the moral aspect of its own illumination. Her face, so long familiar to the townspeople, showed the marble quietude which they were accustomed to behold there. It was like a mask; or rather, like the frozen calmness of a dead woman’s features; owing this dreary resemblance to the fact that Hester was actually dead, in respect to any claim of sympathy, and had departed out of the world with which she still seemed to mingle." (pg. 197 2nd paragraph)
Hester was so wrapped up in Pearl and the secret that kept Dimmesdale part of the society that she wasn't really all there. She was physically but not mentally. She was dead to the townspeople, she had sinned, and nothing can completely fix that, no matter what she did. She has too much stuff on her mind having to do with finally being upfront about who Pearl's father is, and what their plans are for leaving the town are.
Reread this section. Why is Hester actually dead? Does this also connect her to Dimmesdale who later dies? Are they both undead?
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