The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Summary of the Plot
Hester Prynne is leaving the prison to go stand in the town scaffolds for an hour with her illegitimate daughter whom she has just given birth to. She is also required to wear a red “A” on her dress to advertise that she is an adulteress. Hester refuses to name the man that she has sinned with.
Years pass and Hester lives in a small cottage on the outskirts of town with her impulsive little girl, Pearl.
Hester makes her living embroidering and sewing clothing for the people in town. A man arrives, Roger
Chillingworth. He is Hester’s husband who had been long presumed dead. He becomes friends with
Hester’s pastor, Arthur Dimmesdale. The two men move in together. Chillingworth calls himself a doctor and takes care of Dimmesdale, who is in poor health.
As Dimmesdale’s health declines Chillingworth changes. He turns into monster to Dimmesdale. Hester confronts Chillingworth about his behavior. Chillingworth, it is discovered, believes Dimmesdale is
Pearl’s father and he intends on making his life miserable.
Hester realizes sees the seriousness of the situation and makes the decision to tell Dimmesdale who
Chillingworth really is eventhough she had sworn this fact to secrecy. She needs to protect Dimmesdale so she wants to warn him.
Hester tells Dimmesdale her secret and begs him for forgiveness. He is angry but eventually relents and agrees to leave the colony with Hester and Pearl. But Chillingworth discovers the plan and books a trip on the same ship they are leaving for Europe on. While this is going on Dimmesdale is preparing what turns out to be his final sermon. Dimmesdale had always been thought of as an inspirational preacher and godly. He writes and delivers his sermon which reveals a sinful nature. When he leaves the church he goes to the town scaffold. Dimmesdale sees Hester and Pearl in the shadows and pulls them up the scaffold stairs with him. He then publically bares his chest, showing a large self-inflicted wound, announces his fatherhood to Pearl and dies.
After this revelation Chillingworth has nothing to live for and dies a short time later. Pearl and Hester go to Europe for a while. Hester eventually returns alone and no one knows where Pearl is. Hester is seen sewing baby clothes that are extravagant. Also Hester gets letters from a “man of means” for the rest of her life. She lives a long life and is a helpful counselor to other troubled women and a person of great charity. When she dies she is buried next to Dimmesdale.
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Paula Mahoney

The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Character List
Hester Prynne is the main character. She has come to Boston without a husband from Europe. She is beautiful and has an illegitimate child, Pearl with Arthur Dimmesdale. She has to wear a scarlet letter because she had an affair with the Puritan minister, Dimmesdale. Her husband, Chillingworth, was an elderly scholar and had sent Hester to America to live, but he didn’t follow her. Hester is a strong and passionate woman who suffers years of shame and scorn by the other members of the colony. She has the unique position to observe the community’s treatment of women.
Arthur Dimmesdale is the well respected pastor in Boston. He is sickly and seems always to be in pain.
In a moment of weakness he and Hester become lovers and has a child with her, Pearl. He doesn’t publically acknowledge the child as his and torments himself physically and psychologically over his guilt. He is a man of constant conflict.
Roger Chillingworth is the protagonist in the story. He is a monster, psychologically and physically.
Chillingworth is Hester’s husband in disguise. He had sent his younger wife ahead to America while he stayed in Europe to settle affairs. When he finally arrives in Boston he finds his wife, Hester and a child, on the scaffolds being publically humiliated. Because he is smart he can pull off playing a doctor in order to get revenge on his wife and her unknown lover.
Pearl is Hester Prynne’s illegitimate daughter. She is wise beyond her years, mischievous, moody and very perceptive. She knows of her mother’s and Dimmesdale’s relationship. The townspeople say that she is the daughter of the Devil.
Governor Bellingham is the Governor of Massachusetts at this time. He is wealthy and in his role as governor sticks to the rules. But, he is easily swayed by the eloquence of Dimmesdale. His sister happens to be a witch, something he is unaware of.
Mistress Hibbins is the governor’s sister and a witch, In the book she is executed during the Salem
Witch trials. She is a reminder to the reader of the hypocrisy and sheltered evil in Puritan society.
General Themes
Sin, Knowledge, and the Human Condition
The story of Hester and Dimmesdale can be compared to the story of Adam and Eve in the Old
Testament. Sin results in suffering and expulsion. The results of their sins also brings knowledge
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Paula Mahoney

The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne of what it means to be human. Both Hester and Dimmesdale learn from their situations and , after much contemplation, understand their place in the scheme of things. This perspective allows the two to see their experiences as pathways to personal growth. Not the typical mindset of Puritan society.
The Nature of Evil
The book debates the source of evil. The story “says” that evil comes from the close relationship between love and hate. The characters are the embodiment of this constant struggle throughout the plot.
Identity and Society
Hester is required by the community in which she lives to wear the scarlet letter. She has the option to leave the town and go somewhere else to start over fresh. Surprisingly she doesn’t leave. To leave and pretend what happened didn’t would be denying her own identity. She is determined to identify her own identity rather than let society determine it for her. She chooses to let the scarlet letter be a symbol of who she is because of her own experiences. To deny what happened to her would be denying who she is.
Important Symbols
The town and the forest that surrounds it represents opposing behavioral systems. Civilization is symbolized by the town, a public place where rules rule and everything is on display. The forest is a space of nature, not human authority. Rules don’t apply here. People can be their true selves
(Hester, Mistress Hibbins).
Night versus Day
The novel’s plot organizes events in two categories: those that are socially acceptable and those that are not. Day exposes and night hides what nature needs.
Author Information
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a descendent of the only judge involved in the Salem Witch Trials who never was sorry for his actions.
He was a member of a transcendentalist community and much of his work centers on New England, featuring moral allegories with Puritan overtones. It is noted that Hawthorne’s fiction writing often centered on evil and sin of humanity. These works are considered part of the Romantic movement.
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Paula Mahoney

The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet www.online-literature.com › Nathaniel Hawthorne http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/The-Scarlet-Letter-The-Scarlet-Letter-at-a-
Glance.id-167.html
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Paula Mahoney