The Scarlet Letter
Chapters 1-4
Artemisa Ngjela
Character list for Scarlet Letter
• Hester Prynee – the books protagonist and the
wearer of the Scarlet Letter
• Pearl- Hesters - daughter
• Roger Chillingworth – Hester's husband in
disguise and sent Hester to America while he
settled in Europe.
• Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale – A young
gentleman that’s a theologian and also
immigrated to America
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In a Puritan colony in Boston, Mass. 17th century.
Prisons and cemeteries were two important necessities for a new colony.
Hester Prynne is accused of adultery and has to wear the letter “A” stitched
in scarlet and gold.
Hester notices her husband in the crowd, looking deformed in the
shoulders.
Hester is being punished with 3 hours standing in the scaffold and a lifetime
of wearing the letter “A”. Many people were yelling, and disrespecting her.
The town’s fathers are: Reverend Wilson, Reverend Dimmesdale and
Governor Bellingham
The men that are judging her are ignorant
Reverend Dimmesdale pushes Hester to reveal the baby’s father’s name,
but Hester refuses to do so.
Hester’s husband is called to be a doctor at the prison where she is staying.
Roger Chillingworth is her husband.
Chillingworth is compared to the Devil by Hester, and he is planning on
finding her lover.
The Scarlet Letter
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
•Hester visits Bellingham’s mansion.
•They discuss how townspeople believe Pearl is
demonic.
•They reason that if she is, they will take the child
for Hester’s sake, but if she is not, they will still
take her for her own sake.
Chapter 7
•Hester’s reflection in the
armor scares her.
Symbols:
•Rose bush: Decay
shows the governors
incapability of
nurturing things,
including his society.
•Mansion: Governor’s own “England” in the New
World.
•Pearl wants
a rose from
•Armor: Hester’s distorted reflection represents her
unnatural place in society.
the rose
•Dead English ornamentalbush.
•Pearl: Is a blessing and a
curse to her mother.
Symbolizes Hester’s sin, and
the unknown truth.
plants:
England’s principals that failed
to survive in the colonies.
•Bellingham, Wilson, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale discuss Pearl.
•Hester tells Gov. she can teach Pearl her important lesson of shame.
•Hester begs Dimmesdale for help convincing them to let her keep Pearl.
•Dimmesdale suggests that God sent Pearl as a blessing and curse, and you cannot question God’s
plan. (he speaks to save his own reputation)
•Pearl shows affection towards Dimmesdale. (natural attachment
to her earthly father.)
•Chillingworth presses investigation on Hester’s lover but is
refused. (relentless search to do evil)
•Mistress Hibbins invites Hester to a witchcraft meeting.(Puritan’s
blindness to evil in their town)
•Hester denies Hibbin’s offer. (Pearl saves her from Satan’s
temptations.)
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Chapters 9-12
Roger Chillingworth( as he know goes by) is a physician and is sent to help
Dimmesdale in the company of his home. They do not know each other prior to this.
Dimesdale seems to be wasting away and is constantly clutching his chest as if he
is having heart pains.
Chillingworth and Dimmesdale become very good acquaintances.
Chillingworth's personality changes from kind to devilish one.
Chillingworth mercilessly tries to find the cause of Dimmesdale's sickness.
When Hester and Pearl come to visit Dimmesdale , Chillingworth remarks that
Hester wears her “A”openly. Dimmesdale takes offense to this.Chillingworth and
Dimmesdale remain friends but have an awkward tension between them.
Dimmesdale's suffering; continues. One night, Dimmesdale mounts the scaffold
where Hester and Pearl frequently stand for Hester's sin. No one sees him beside Hester
and Pearl on their way home. He invites them to stand on the scaffold with him.
Dimmesdale becomes warned by their presence. He tells Pearl that he will stand with her
and her mother on “Judgment Day”
An “A” brightens the sky , and Chillingworth appears.
Chillingworth makes excuses why he would be standing on the scaffold.
After this event, Dimmesdale continues to preach powerful sermons. The
townspeople find the minister's glove on the scaffold and assume this is the Devil's work.
They also interpret the “A” that appeared in the sky to stand for “Angel” for
Governor Winthorp's death rather than for Hester and Pearl.
•7 Years later
•Questions Pearl’s Behavior
•Hester is completely
disconnected from society
•Hester connect
Dimmesdale’s health with
Chillingworth
•“A” = Able
•Dimmesdale is Ill
•Mutual Crime between
Hester and Dimmesdale
•Harsher woman
•“A”= A nun’s cross
•Chillingworth is collecting
herbs in the river
•The “ A” can only be
removed by God
•Hester will reveal
Chillingworth’s identity
•Chillingworth =
embodiment of evil
•Hester discovers her
hatred towards her
husband
•Pearl created an “A” on
the beach
•Pearl connect
Dimmesdale’s health with
Hester’s “A”
•Secrets lead
•Black Man->
to Destruction
Chillingworth
•Sin derives
•The Woods are the
•Pearl=
Reason/Purit
y
from many
factors
Black Man’s
residance
•Sin is
•Good Vs. Evil
•Change and
•Individual
Transformation
•Original Sin
•Public Opinion
•Puritan Values
inevitable
Vs. Society
Setting
- A brook in the forest where Hester and Pearl wait for Dimmesdale
Characters:
- Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, Pearl
Plot:
- Hester waits for Dimmesdale in the forest because she can not wait for him in the
study. She “dreads” Chillingworth’s secret and doesn’t want to meddle in his affairs. She
also believes that her and Dimmesdale need to breathe in the “whole world” as they talk.
-The sunshine shuns Hester, which Peal attributes to her scarlet letter.
-Pearl asks if Hester has ever met the “Black Man,” and if he is the reason that Hester
has a scarlet letter on her bosom.
-Dimmesdale puts his “hand over his heart”, and Pearl wonders if it’s because of the
“Black Man.”
-Hester tells Dimmesdale that Roger Chillingworth is her husband.
-Dimmesdale goes through a “dark transfiguration” where he begins to scold Hester for
his anguish.
-Dimmesdale forgives Hester and proceeds to call Chillingworth a greater sinner than
them.
-Hester and Dimmesdale plot to run away to Europe and become a family with Pearl.
Themes
-Good vs. Evil
-Dimmesdale needs to admit that he is Hester’s lover in order to escape from
Chillingworth and become free.
BY John MCcOLL
Chapters 19 and 20(18&19)
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Hester and Dimmesdale both escape the public eye and also Chillingworth.
Hester confesses to Dimmesdale that he's her husband.
Dimmesdale blamed his suffering on Hester and began to say harsh things
so Hester buried his face in to the Scarlet Letter.
Hester insists to the minister after Dimmesdale apology to take away his old
man powers.
Pearl is very suspicious of her parents.
Hester has to pin the letter back on and become sad an before Pearl will
cross the creek.
Pearl kisses Hester seeming like it was out of pity, also kisses the Scarlet
Letter.
Pearl doesn’t tell the minister that he is her father.
Dimmesdale refuses to go back on the ship to Europe with them three,
Pearl dislikes the kiss on her forehead and runs to the brook to wash it off.
The Scarlet Letter
Chapter 20
The Minister in a Maze
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After leaving the forest, the minister glances back and realizes it was not a dream.
Hester and Dimmesdale have decided to return to England to live a more concealed
life.
Dimmesdale find the fact that the ship leaves in four days particularly fortunate.
Election Day was in three days where Dimmesdale would perform his Election
Sermon.
On his way home, Dimmesdale has three uncharacteristic urges.
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Dimmesdale questions whether or not he has made a contract with the devil.
Mistress Hibbons confronts Dimmesdale over this contract and he firmly denies it.
Chillingworth says, “as if the travel through the wilderness had been too sore for you.”
There is a strong satirical tension between Dimmesdale and Chillingworth.
Dimmesdale relieves Chillingworth of his duties.
Chillingworth hints to DImmesdale’s plan to flee
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The old deacon, the widow, and the poor young girl
“The people look for great things from you, apprehending that another year may come about,
and find their pastor gone.”
Dimmesdale proceeds in throwing his Election Sermon into the garbage and starting
from scratch
Symbolism
Major Theme Development
• “a single day
had operated •The entire change of Dimmesdale’s character
on his
consciousness
like the lapse of
Literary Devices
years”
• The sermon
•Internal monologue- Dimmesdale’s perception
that
on what the public will say to him terminating his
Dimmesdale
career
throws into the
garbage
•Simile- “like one willing to recognize a secret
intimacy of connection”
•Simile- “as if it were a winged steed”
•Personification- morning-peeping and blushed
•Personification- sunrise- threw a golden beam
into the study
The Scarlet Letter
By Chelsea Ortiz
Chapters 21 - 22
The town gathers in the marketplace
to celebrate a new governor. Pearl wishes
to have Dimmesdale openly acknowledge
her as he did in the forest. Hester is told by a sailor that Chillingworth
Pearl wishes to display her
would be accompanying her and Dimmesdale on
affection for the minister
the ship to Europe. A doctor was needed on
board. Dimmesdale appears looking incredibly
in front of everyone with a kiss.
Healthy. So much so that Pearl does
Miss Hibbins predicts the
not recognize him.
revealing of the minister's secret.Dimmesdales most powerful sermon takes
Themes and Symbols
Pearl: Guilt and pressure of
Sin. Behavior lightens as the
revealing of Dimmesdale's
secret nears.
place upon the scaffold. Chillingworth claims
he will be tending to Dimmesdales boarding
of the ship and Hester must only account
for herself and Pearl.
All main characters gathered together by the scaffold for the last time.
The Scarlet Letter
Chapter 23Dimmsdale gave his most powerful sermon on election day.
All the energy that Dimmsdale had portrayed was now gone as he walked toward the Scaffold where Hester stood.
As Dimmsdale collapsed he called for Pearl and Hester.
The 4 main characters; Dimmsdale,Hester,Pearl, and Chillingworth were now all together at the Scaffold one last time.
Being held up by Pearl and Hester, Dimmsdale admits to his sin.
Dimmsdale rips of his shirt to show he also had some type of mark but the author does not describe it.
Dimmsdale asks Pearl if she will kiss him now and she does.
Dimmsdale then dies as he is talking to Hester.
Chapter 24Describes the accounts of what people thought they saw.
-Some saw a Scarlet Letter on the chest of Dimmsdale.
-Some thought it got there from Chillingworth’s use of magic.
-Some even thought that nothing was on his chest and that he had never committed a sin,
but took the
blame for it to teach
the people a lesson: “We are all sinners alike.”
Chillingworth then dies within a year since he now has nothing to focus his revenge on;
leaving everything to Pearl.
Hester and Pearl then disappear too, but after some time Hester would return to her cottage
alone where she would die.
Hester was then buried in King’s Chapel next to Dimmsdale but far enough that
“the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle, even in death”
“On a field, sable, the letter A, gules.”The last words of the book that are used by the author to sum it up.
Meaning: A red letter appearing against a black background.