"Those who had before known her, and had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even startled to perceive how her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped."
The puritans do not expect Hester Prynne to look so lady-like and so elegant. I think they were so confused by how beautiful she was they thought because she committed such a terrible Sin she would be dressed in a more gloomy outfit. Her "wild" attire represents what she is feeling on the inside. Hawthorne is trying to describe that she doesn't think what she did was so wrong. She is showing that even though she did wrong, she can still be beautiful and feel beautiful.
Yes!
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