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Characters
(These descriptions are word-for-word from the book)
Puritan women: coarse, hefty, manly, harsh, cold, judgmental, conformed, hard features, bold, rotund,
grim, severe, gossipy, “country women,” associated with darkness
Puritans as a group: somber, grim, rigid, petrified, heavy, gloomy, dark, oppressive, sad-colored
Hester: elegant, dignity, grace, reckless, dainty, beauty, spirit, refined wild, halo, radiant, “Divine
Maternity” or Mary, associated with light; individuality; associated with the rosebush and nature; she’s a
living sermon against sin; she’s the town seamstress and starts fashion trends; dresses in plain clothes
and appears conformed
Chillingworth: keen, penetrative, deformed, ugly, evil, snake-like, erudite, scholar-like, intellectual, cold,
unsympathetic ; reborn from Roger Prynne to Roger Chillingworth with dark motives; obsessed with
punishing the father and sucks the life out of Dimmesdale; has freedom of thought outside the Puritan
worldview; seen as originally a god-sent blessing and then Satan
Governor Bellingham: extravagantly dressed, rigid, unsympathetic, unfit to judge a woman’s heart; tries
to recreate an English palace and garden; represents the Puritan magistrates; was a lawyer and had to
go to war out of necessity
John Wilson (=the minister): potential to be kind but puts intellect over feelings; compared to a dark
solemn portrait
Dimmesdale (=the reverend): has eloquence and religious fervor, great speaker, striking features,
melancholy eyes, nervous, self-restraint, half-frightened, simple and childlike; highly regarded in the
community; caught in Puritan system/worldview; lives a meaningless life of lies
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Change: emaciated, pale, wane; tortured by an issue of guilt and not confessing; is a coward; his
reputation grows as he suffers more; goes through motions of confessing but is too scared to
truly confess
Pearl: little woodland creature, imp, sprite, innocent, a flower that sprung out of sin, radiant,
glimmering, passionate, mutability, impulsive, wild, desperate, defiant, flighty, fearless, imaginative,
perceptive, like a wild, tropical bird; Hester’s only treasure- source of anguish and comfort; object of
Hester’s creativity; living embodiment of the A and Hester’s sin; is an embodiment of Hester’s
suppressed emotions
Governor’s bond servant: thinks Hester is a “great lady”
Mistress Hibbins: the local witch and governor’s sister; bitter, evil; tries to invite Hester to the dark side
Items
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Prison door: weather-stained, dark, gloomy, iron, antique, intimidating; older than anything in the new
world which suggests that crime and punishment have been around the longest; reveals that crime and
sin are essential in society
Rosebush: wild, beautiful, delicate, fragile and fragrant, sympathetic, precious, kind, valuable
Marketplace: center of town where nothing is hidden; the Puritan’s safe place where order resides
Scaffold: system of punishment to promote good citizenship; reveals Puritan obsession with sin,
conformity, and discipline
Scarlett letter: The scarlet letter is meant to be a symbol of shame, but instead it becomes a powerful
symbol of identity to Hester. Like Pearl, the letter functions as a physical reminder of Hester’s affair with
Dimmesdale. But, compared with a human child, the letter seems insignificant, and thus helps to point
out the ultimate meaninglessness of the community’s system of judgment and punishment. The child
has been sent from God, or at least from nature, but the letter is merely a human contrivance.
Meteor: As Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl in Chapter 12, a meteor traces out
an “A” in the night sky. To Dimmesdale, the meteor implies that he should wear a mark of shame just as
Hester does. The meteor is interpreted differently by the rest of the community, which thinks that it
stands for “Angel” and marks Governor Winthrop’s entry into heaven. Symbols are taken to mean what
the beholder wants them to mean.
Cottage: Hester’s home which is on outskirts of town on edge of the wilderness; reveals how Hester is
an outsider
Governor’s garden: an attempted imitation of gardens of England; reveals that Puritans have tried to
recreate the old order of conformity and no religious freedom in America
The woods: wild, recklessness, lawlessness, trouble, irregularity, freedom without boundaries; opposite
of safe order and civilization
Glove: when the Puritans found Dimmesdale’s glove on the scaffold, they believed that Satan dropped it
there because they could never believe that Dimmesdale is a sinner; reveals that they create another
reality when things don’t fit into their worldview/perspective
Essay Themes
The Two Scaffold Scenes
Meaning and significance
 1st scaffold scene: out in the open in public during the day  Hester’s confession brings light
 2nd scaffold scene: at night in the dark in secret  Dimmesdale’s cowardice brings darkness
 Both reveal:
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The Puritan severity of punishment; no distinction between moral and civic law; are
very harsh, unsympathetic, and judgmental
The Puritan emphasis on conformity – rejecting Hester and Pearl for individuality
What it reveals about Dimmesdale’s emotional condition
 Dimmesdale is conflicted: he needs to confess to cleanse his guilt and alleviate his suffering, but
he does not want to confess because he is caught up in the Puritan worldview
 He suppresses his guilt  He is cowardly and passes up the opportunity to confess.
 Both times, he puts responsibility on Hester  He doesn’t have to courage to take responsibility
himself
 This reveals:
- He is caught up in the Puritan system of beliefs.
- He is suffering because of the Puritan emphasis on the depravity of man which makes
him reluctant to confess. Puritans believed that nothing good can come out of something
bad, so he believes that he can do more good for the community by not confessing.
 By the 2nd scene, he is more unstable and tortured. At this point, he’s suffering so much he’s
driven to actually go through the motions of confessing.
Chillingworth stands for:
 An intellectual with freedom of thought outside the Puritan worldview
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He doesn’t have to stick to what the Puritans believe
Opposite of Dimmesdale: Dimmesdale is intrigued with him
 A scholar who doesn’t fulfill his potential
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As a scholar, he should be searching for absolute truth.
His obsession with revenge corrupts this search: he doesn’t search for truth, he digs for
the purpose of inflicting pain and suffering
 Consumed with revenge and punishment and deteriorates as a result
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His new identify revolves around this mission: it’s his only meaning in life
As he preys on Dimmesdale, he becomes more deformed, ugly, and evil
The Puritan Community
How do they behave like a character?
 The mass of Puritans are lumped together and behave as 1 person. They all exhibit the same
characteristics:
- Gray, somber, solemn, gloomy, rigid, petrified
- Severe, harsh, judgmental
- No distinction between moral and civic law
- Narrow worldview that they cannot see outside of
- Obsessed with the depravity of man, sin, and punishment
 They are all conformed
- Puritan society is centered on conformity and discipline
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 FOIL to Hester and Pearl who represent individuality and freedom
What are their values?
 Punishment and justice: rooting out sin and putting it in the light
 Emphasis on salvation and the depravity of man
- Human nature is evil and only God’s grace can save us from damnation (Doctrines of the
depravity of man and covenant of grace)
- The community has a responsibility to punish sinners harshly for the good of their souls
 Conformity: only 1 way of thinking
 Order and civic society: strict laws
What are their fears?
 Individuality: punish Hester for this
 The woods: lawlessness, wildness, recklessness
 Change and challenges to their worldview/perspective
Pearl
Meaning and significance: she is a symbol of Freedom without boundaries and the wildness of nature
- She is connected to the rosebush
- She is a beautiful flower sprung from guilty passion
- She’s innocent and untamed
- Born outside the law and resists rules
 Individuality
- She is not conformed like the rest of the Puritan kids
- she’s imaginative and perceptive like Hester
 Passion
- She’s an external representation of Hester’s inner thoughts and feelings
- She’s inherited her mom’s spirit and passion
- She’s feisty and defiant
Is an extension of the scarlet letter
 She is a living version of her mother’s scarlet letter.
 She is a constant reminder of Hester’s sin. She is the physical consequence of Hester’s sin of
passion.
 Hester decorates both the A and Pearl: creates a link between the 2
What she represents to Hester
 Constant reminder of her sin  source of anguish
- Pearl is a living reminder of Hester’s sin, like the A
 A blessing  source of comfort
- Pearl is Hester’s only treasure
- She is the embodiment of Hester’s suppressed emotions
- Hester argues that some good did come out of her sin  contrary to puritan beliefs
What she represents to the community
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 She is viewed as a demon or an imp
 The Puritan community cannot ever see her as anything but something bad. They believe that
nothing good can come from something bad, so Pearl can’t be good because she is a
consequence of Hester’s sin.
The Rose bush and Nature
The Rose Bush
 Wild passion
- Beautiful and delicate
- Sprung from the “sainted” Anne Hutchinson
 Individuality in a conformed society
- Surrounded by a gray, oppressive, somber environment
- At odds with the rest of the Puritan society
 Represents Hester and Pearl
Nature
 Conflict between nature and culture
- Culture = social institutions that subjugate and regulate nature
- Nature = wild and reckless
 Nature is presented in an ambiguous fashion:
- On one hand, it can be sympathetic (the rose by the prison)
o Contrasts the Puritans who are unforgiving
- It can also be heathen and wild (the primeval forest), incapable of attaining a higher
truth
o Untamed, reckless lawlessness; freedom without boundaries
o Everything the Puritans fear
 Hester lives on the border between the woods and the town: she seems to be conformed like
the town, but she has an edge of passion and wildness
 Chillingworth and Dimmesdale have conversations in the woods and on the seashore = wild,
nature, freedom  Dimmesdale flirts with the outside world but then comes back
Dimmesdale
What does he represent?
 Consequences of being stuck in Puritan belief system
- He needs to confess in order to be cleansed of his sin
- However, he feels like he cannot confess in order to continue to do good for the
community. If he confesses, then (according to the Puritans) he will be a sinner and can
do no good because nothing good comes from something bad.
 Because of this he is conflicted and troubled
- As a result, he is physically wasting away: becoming emaciated and pale
 Consequences of suppressing our natural passions
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 Hypocrite for presenting a public face in conflict with his inner self
In which way does he contrast Hester?
 Hester knows what she stands for
 She’s bold, daring, brave, and not afraid to take responsibility
 She is free from the Puritan worldview
- Hester thinks outside the Puritan worldview: she rejects the idea that Pearl is evil and
instead sees her as a blessing
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