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 that Hester Prynne could
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.