I think it depends on what you think it was intended to do. If it was intended to shame her, to make her an "example" of what happens to those who stray from "the way," then it succeeded.
However, if it were intended to make Hester a total outcast from the community, then it did not accomplish what they intended. Despite before isolated from the community, being the one the preachers use as example of the consequences of sin, Hester becomes the seamstress to the community and does a great deal of good for the downtrodden in the community, even though they often scorn her after accepting the good that she does for them.
Hester grows into a better human being as a result of the "A" --- this is difficult to say because we have no idea what she was like before the "A" so "better" is just based upon what Hawthorne tells us about the improvements in her life as she lives in the community. I doubt the magistrates could have imagined the "A" coming to men Able or Angel.
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