THE SCARLET LETTER
Overview, Characters, and Plot
OVERVIEW
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Written: late 1840’s in Salem and Concord, Massachusetts
Setting: mid 1600’s in Boston, Massachusetts
Type of work: novel
Tone: thoughtful, bitter, straightforward, ironic
Protagonist: Hester Prynne
Antagonist: the community
CHARACTERS
Governor Bellinghan: wealthy, elderly: tends to follow the
rules, but can be swayed by Dimmesdale
Roger Chillingworth: Hester’s husband in disguise; enjoys
tormenting Hester’s lover; self absorbed, enjoys hurting
people
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale: Hester’s lover; famous as a
Bible teacher in England before coming to America;
intelligent, can be emotional; powerful preacher;
committed to his church people, but torn by his desire to
confess his own sin
Mistress Hibbins: widow, lives with her brother, Governor
Bellingham; all but her brother think she is a witch who
goes into the forest at night to ride with “the Black Man”
Narrator: unnamed narrator of the story; high strung, feels
guilty about being a writer; writes because he likes history
and wants people to learn from the past
Pearl: Hester’s illegitimate daughter; moody and
mischievous; figures out secrets quickly; the townspeople
think that the Devil was her father
Hester Prynne: passionate and strong, endures years of
shame and scorn; the equal of her husband and lover in
intelligence; able to stand back from the community and so
that helps her to gain understanding about the people
Reverend Mr. John Wilson: senior clergyman of Boston;
book loving, elderly, typical stern Puritan father; follows
the rules like the Governor, but can also be moved by
Dimmesdale; his sermons dwell on harsh punishment for
sinners
PLOT
The book opens with a long discussion of how the book
came to be written. The narrator (who is never called by a
name), explains that he worked in Salem, Massachusetts as
a surveyor. In the attic of his work, he discovered some
writings, and a group of papers tied together along with a
red and gold patch of cloth in the shape of the letter A. The
book, written by a past surveyor, talked about things that
had happened about two hundred years before the
narrator’s time. When the man had lost his job, he decided
to write down the events recorded in the book. But they are
said to be fiction- The Scarlet Letter is that fictional
account.
The story is set in Boston in the 1600s, when Boston was
settled by Puritans. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is
taken from the town jail along with her baby daughter. The
baby is named Pearl. Hester is wearing a dress with a red
letter A. A man in the group tells an older man that is
watching that Hester is being punished for adultery.
Hester’s husband, a scholar and much older that she is, had
sent her to America. But, he has never arrived in Boston.
People assume that his ship is lost at sea. While in
America, Hester has had an affair, and given birth to Pearl.
She has refused to name the man. The scarlet (red) letter
that she must wear is punishment for sinning and refusing
to name the man involved. Hester is taken to the town
scaffold (where they hang people) and yelled at by the town
fathers. But she refuses to name the father of her baby.
The older man watching is Hester’s missing husband. He is
now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger
Chillingworth. He decides to stay and Boston and plans his
revenge for what Hester has done. He tells no one who he
is, and makes Hester promise not to tell as well. Several
years pass. Hester makes a living for herself by sewing.
Pearl grows into a willful, impish child. No one accepts
them, so they live in a small house on the outside of town.
Town fathers try to take Pearl away from Hester. She fights
them off with the help of a young minister, Arthur
Dimmesdale. The mother and daughter manage to stay
together.
Dimmesdale has some type of unknown heart problem. He
seems to be slowly wasting away. Chillingsworth attaches
himself to the young minister, and eventually moves in
with him to take care of him around the clock.
Chillingsworth suspects there is a connection between
Hester’s secret, and the minister’s mysterious illness. He
begins to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn. When
the minister is asleep, Chillingsworth discovers a mark on
Dimmesdale’s chest. The reader is not told the details of
what it looks like. What he finds makes Chillingsworth sure
he is right about the connection between Hester and
Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale’s depression deepens, and he
seems to torture himself even more.
Hester does good things for people, and lives very quietly
with Pearl. People are beginning to think more kindly about
her. One night on the way back from visiting a dying
person, Pearl and Hester find Dimmesdale on top of the
town scaffold (where Hester was at the beginning of the
story). He is trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester
and Pearl join him and the three hold hands together. Pearl
asks Dimmesdale to tell people the next day that he is her
father. He refuses, and a meteor falls, marking the night sky
with a dull red letter A. Hester sees that Dimmesdale’s
health is failing. She tries to help him, and goes to
Chillingsworth and asks him to stop making things worse
for Dimmesdale. He refuses.
Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the forest. They decide to
run away together to Europe, where they can live with
Pearl as a family. They decide to leave in four days. Both
feel a new sense of freedom once the decision has been
made. Hester takes off her letter A and lets her hair fall
free. Pearl, playing nearby, does not know her mother
without her letter A.
The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather
for a holiday. Dimmesdale preaches his best sermon ever to
the town. Hester learns that Chillingsworth has found out
about their plan to leave, and has gotten a ticket on the
same ship. Dimmesdale was leaving the church after
preaching his sermon, when he sees Hester and Pearl
standing beside the town scaffold. He pulls them up on the
scaffold with him, and confesses his sins with Hester in
front of the whole town. He opens his shirt and shows all a
red letter A burned into his chest. He then falls dead as
Pearl kisses him.
Upset and frustrated that he could not continue to play his
evil games with Dimmesdale, Chillingsworth dies a year
later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston. Many years later,
Hester returns alone, still wearing her scarlett letter A. She
lives in her old cottage, and continues to do her good works
to help others. She gets letters from Pearl, who has married
a European aristocrat, and has children of her won. When
Hester dies, she is buried next to Dimmesdale. The two
share one tombstone. It is marked with a single red A.