The Scarlet Letter
Analysis of characters
Hester Prynne
the main
characters
Arthur Dimmesdale
Roger Chillingworth
Major characters in The Scarlet Letter
Roger
Chillingworth
Arthur
Dimmesdale
Hester Prynne
daughter
Pearl
Major characters in The Scarlet Letter
attractive, appealing, intelligent, capable
Passionate
— has
a love affair with Dimmesdale
strong and stoic —she endures years of
shame and scorn
Hester
contemplative— speculates on human nature,
social organization, and larger moral questions.
maternal—moderates her tendency to be rash;
cares for the poor and brings them food and
clothing
a protofeminist mother
figure to the women of
the community
Why does she repeatedly refuse to stop
wearing the letter?
A--“her passport into regions where other
women dared not tread”
her behavior
She desires to she is determined
She is
determine her
to transform its
unwilling to
own identity
meaning through
erase her past
rather than to
her actions and
deed and her
allow others to her own selfpast decisions
determine it for perception
her
She is not the example of sin that she was
once intended to be. Rather, she is an example
of redemption and self-empowerment.
What makes Dimmesdale’s mental anguish?
1.Hester takes all of the blame for
their shared sin, leading to his guilty
conscience and resultant mental
anguish.
2.The townspeople do not believe
Dimmesdale’s protestations of
sinfulness. This drives Dimmesdale to
further internalize his guilt and selfpunishment and leads to still more
deterioration in his physical and
spiritual condition.
true evil
Chillingworth
his name --- a man deficient in human warmth
His appearance--- twisted, stooped, deformed
shoulders--- his distorted soul
His identity of a “leech”---he feeds on the vitality
of others as a way of energizing his own
projects.
He is obsessed with revenge---after Dimmesdale
dies, Chillingworth no longer has a victim.
Having lost the objects of his revenge, the
leech has no choice but to die.
Themes of The Scarlet Letter
Doesn’t intend to tell a love
story or a story of sin
Hawthorne--
assumes the universality of
guilt
explores the complexities and
ambiguities of man’s choices
focuses his attention on the moral,
emotional, and psychological
effects of the sin on the people
Hawthorne
Everybody is potentially a
sinner, and great moral courage
is indispensable for the
improvement of human nature.
The book is an examination of the forces
that shape Hester and the transformations
those forces effect, a hymn on the moral
growth of the woman who is sinned against.
sinners
Hester
confesses her
guilt, faces the
future
optimistically，
helps others
is able to
construct her
life, wins a
moral success
Dimmesdale
Chillingworth
hides his guilt
first
undergoes
the physical
and spiritual
torments
morally
degrades
by his
pursuit of
revenge
die
moral growth
angel
Writing Characteristics
1) It is a cultural allegory and
structurally compact.
twenty-four chapters
are knitted together by
scaffold scenes.
In the beginning, the middle, and the end,
all the four major characters are at the scene.
Writing Characteristics
2) Hawthorne's ambiguity
People offer different views concerning
the sign of the letter A on the dead
minister's chest. The author doesn't
give his views. So, people come up with
different interpretations.
Writing Characteristics
3) It is a kind of romance.
Two lovers come together, and will be
finally united in death.
4) Hawthorne uses the supernatural.
The appearance of the symbol A in the
sky is in twilight atmosphere. All
things, natural or otherwise, may
become probable.
Writing Characteristics
5) His use of symbols
the central symbol
the scarlet letter “A”
Adultery
a token of shame
Able
Angel
“A” appears in the
sky
What does “A” mean to the chief
characters respectively?
 For Puritan society, it just means
punishment.
 For Hester, it means unjust humiliation.
 For Dimmesdale, it’s a reminder of his
own sin.
 For Chillingworth, it’s a request for
revenge.
 For Pearl, it’s nothing but a beautiful
cloth.
 It is a guide for Hester to go to heaven,
and Dimmesdale to hell.