Isobel Gamble is the protagonist and narrator of Hester. A Scottish seamstress married to Edward, an apothecary who struggles with addiction and debts, Isobel arrives in America hopeful for a future of her own making. She is talented and hardworking, though taught to fear her “colors,” her name for synesthesia. Over the course of the novel, she learns to respect her colors as well as her ancestress and namesake Isobel Gowdie, a woman who was accused of being a witch. Through bonds made in Salem, Isobel learns to move on from the past and prepare for a future with Margaret, her daughter by Nat Hathorne (who later goes by Nathaniel Hawthorne). She is prone to romance, becoming infatuated with Nat despite his objectification of her, and eventually falling in love with her friend Captain Willian Darling, who treats her with respect. She also begins the novel  ignorant about matters of race and slavery, particularly in an American context, and learns to empathize with her friend Mercy’s family as they navigate a racist society.