SCARLET LETTER

BY: NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

• The story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, then a
Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is
led from the town prison with her infant daughter,
Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” on her
breast. A man in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker
that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester’s
husband, a scholar much older than she is, sent her
ahead to America, but he never arrived in Boston. The
consensus is that he has been lost at sea. While waiting
for her husband, Hester has apparently had an affair, as
she has given birth to a child. She will not reveal her
lover’s identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along
with her public shaming, is her punishment for her sin
and her secrecy. On this day Hester is led to the town
scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she
again refuses to identify her child’s father.
• The elderly onlooker is Hester’s missing husband, who is now practicing
medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He settles in Boston, intent
on revenge. He reveals his true identity to no one but Hester, whom he has
sworn to secrecy. Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a
seamstress, and Pearl grows into a willful, impish child. Shunned by the
community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston.
Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but, with the
help of Arthur Dimmesdale, a young and eloquent minister, the mother and
daughter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale, however, appears to be
wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by
psychological distress. Chillingworth attaches himself to the ailing minister
and eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with
round-the-clock care. Chillingworth also suspects that there may be a
connection between the minister’s torments and Hester’s secret, and he begins
to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister
sleeps, Chillingworth discovers a mark on the man’s breast (the details of
which are kept from the reader), which convinces him that his suspicions are
correct.
• Dimmesdale’s psychological anguish deepens, and
he invents new tortures for himself. In the meantime,
Hester’s charitable deeds and quiet humility have
earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the
community. One night, when Pearl is about seven
years old, she and her mother are returning home
from a visit to a deathbed when they encounter
Dimmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish
himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl join him, and
the three link hands. Dimmesdale refuses Pearl’s
request that he acknowledge her publicly the next
day, and a meteor marks a dull red “A” in the night
sky. Hester can see that the minister’s condition is
worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to
Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to
Dimmesdale’s self-torment. Chillingworth refuses.
• Hester arranges an encounter with Dimmesdale in the forest
because she is aware that Chillingworth has probably guessed
that she plans to reveal his identity to Dimmesdale. The former
lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl
as a family. They will take a ship sailing from Boston in four
days. Both feel a sense of release, and Hester removes her
scarlet letter and lets down her hair. Pearl, playing nearby, does
not recognize her mother without the letter. The day before the
ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday and
Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever.
Meanwhile, Hester has learned that Chillingworth knows of
their plan and has booked passage on the same ship.
Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Hester
and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively
mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and
confesses publicly, exposing a scarlet letter seared into the
flesh of his chest. He falls dead, as Pearl kisses him.
Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year
later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston,
and no one knows what has happened to them. Many
years later, Hester returns alone,
still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old
cottage and resume her charitable work.
She receives occasional letters from Pearl, who has
married a European aristocrat and
established a family of her own. When Hester dies,
she is buried next to Dimmesdale.
The two share a single tombstone, which bears a
scarlet “A.”
 LITERARY ANALYSIS
The Scarlet Letter is a novel about what happens to a strict, tight-knit
community when one of its members commits a societal taboo, and how
shame functions in both the public and private realms of life. In telling the
story of the adulterous but virtuous Hester Prynne; her weak, tormented
lover Dimmesdale; and her vengeance-minded husband, Chillingworth,
Hawthorne explores ideas about the individual versus the group and the
nature of sin. A first-person, introductory chapter, written two hundred
years after the events of the novel, indicate that the story will explore
attitudes and beliefs that have evolved since the time the story’s set. The
next chapter introduces the main character, Hester, emerging from the
prison wearing a dress marked with a scarlet letter “A,” and carrying her
baby, Pearl. By opening the action of the book after Hester and
Dimmesdale’s infidelity has already taken place, Hawthorne establishes the
themes of the book as sin, guilt, and remorse, rather than forbidden passion.
 ELEMENTS OF THE STORY
• Setting:
• The Scarlet Letter is set in Boston in the
1600s, prior to American Independence. At
the time, Boston was part of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, which had
been established after the first group of
English settlers arrived in Plymouth in
1620.
• Plot:
• The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 novel by
Nathaniel Hawthorne set in Boston, then the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, in the mid-17th century (about
fifty years before the nearby Salem Witch Trials). It tells
the story of the relationship between the Puritan
community and Hester Prynne, the protagonist, after it is
discovered that she bore a child out of wedlock—an act
that cuts against society’s religious values. As punishment
for her actions, Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet “A,”
which, as it is never said outright, presumably stands for
“adultery” or “adulterer.” The narrative, which is framed
by an introductory piece entitled “The Custom-House,”
depicts the seven years following Prynne’s crime.
• Conflict: • Point of View:
• MAN vs. MAN
• The town leaders become concerned that Hester is
• The Scarlet Letter is written from an omniscient
an unfit parent for Pearl because of her wild third-person perspective in which the narrator
behavior, and they want to take Pearl away from her. describes the thoughts and feeling of the main
• characters as well as the general sentiments of
MAN vs. SELF
the townspeople, which shows how the
• Dimmesdale experiences such intense guilt at
making Hester carry the burden of their sin alone
characters function in their larger community.
that he begins to look sickly and unwell.
•
MAN vs. SOCIETY
• Hester’s sin of adultery flies in the face of the Puritan
ideals and laws of Boston at the time, resulting in her
life-long punishment of wearing a scarlet “A” on her
chest.
• Tone:
• The tone of The Scarlet Letter mixes deep
irony with sympathy towards the novel’s
protagonists, contrasting the hypocrisies of
Hester and Dimmesdale’s society with their
own attempts to lead virtuous lives.
• Theme:
• Sin, Knowledge, And The Human
Condition
• Style:
• The style of The Scarlet Letter is ornate and
subtle, characterized by long, intricate sentences,
suggesting the path to the truth is twisting and
complicated. Hawthorne’s long sentences contain
many clauses, or ideas, and often only
communicate the main idea at the end.

• Characters:
• Hester Prynne
• Hester is the book’s protagonist and the wearer of
the scarlet letter that gives the book its title. The
letter, a patch of fabric in the shape of an “A,”
signifies that Hester is an “adulterer.”
• Pearl
• Hester’s illegitimate daughter Pearl is a young girl
with a moody, mischievous spirit and an ability to
perceive things that others do not.
• Roger Chillingworth
• “Roger Chillingworth” is actually Hester’s husband in
disguise. He is much older than she is and had sent her
to America while he settled his affairs in Europe.
• Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale
• Dimmesdale is a young man who achieved fame in
England as a theologian and then emigrated to
America. In a moment of weakness, he and Hester
became lovers.
• Governor Bellingham
• Governor Bellingham is a wealthy, elderly gentleman
who spends much of his time consulting with the other
town fathers.
• Mistress Hibbins
• Mistress Hibbins is a widow who lives with her
brother, Governor Bellingham, in a luxurious
mansion.

• Reverend Mr. John Wilson

• Boston’s elder clergyman, Reverend Wilson is
scholarly yet grandfatherly. He is a stereotypical
Puritan father, a literary version of the stiff,
starkly painted portraits of American patriarchs.
Exposition:
In 17th-Century Puritan Boston, Hester Prynne is on trial for adultery. She has a 3-month old baby named Pearl, and Hester
refuses to name the father. As punishment, Hester must wear a scarlet “A” on her chest for the rest of her life.

Rising Action:
Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale reconnect when Pearl is seven, and they decide to run away together to Europe, after
Dimmesdale’s final sermon, to be given on Election Day. Dimmesdale is slowly becoming more ill with each passing day, and
holds his hand over his heart in pain. Chillingworth discovers the family’s connection and plan. Hester finds out that he has
booked himself a ticket on the same ship with them.

Climax:
Arthur Dimmesdale delivers his Election Day sermon with fervor and new-found energy - many say it’s the best sermon he has
ever given. He ends it by calling Hester and Pearl up to the scaffold with him, where he indirectly with words, but directly with
actions, acknowledges his part in Hester’s adultery and his guilt for not stepping forward as Pearl’s father seven years before. He
tears open his shirt and reveals an “A” engraved into his skin, and then he dies.
Falling Action:
The townspeople cannot believe what they have seen; some even outright deny that Dimmesdale had the “A” on his chest.
Chillingworth dies within a year of Dimmesdale and leaves his entire inheritance to Pearl, making her very rich. Pearl and
Hester leave New England for Europe soon after.

Denouement:
Many years later, Hester Prynne returns to Boston and again lives in the little cottage she and Pearl once shared. She still wears
the scarlet “A” even though she doesn’t have to, and women in the town come to her for advice and respect her. She dies in
Boston, and is buried near Dimmesdale.
 LESSON OF THE STORY:
• Hester Prynne committing a sin is considered as one of the important moral in the
Scarlet Letter. Everyone in the society commits a sin but that doesn’t mean everyone
should be punished like Hester a young woman who in her adultery mistakenly happens
to fall in love and does the crime.
LEADER: CASIMERO, Kenji B.
• MEMBERS: • SIBAYAN, Ray Mark

ABAQUITA, Prince Fernandez • SILAPAN, Rey Lavarias

BENIRO, Aubrey • TUVERA, Crisaida
CABANTING, Jun Michael • VALDEZ, Rey
GIPULAN, Ivan
GOTGOTAO, Justine
MEGALLON, Eric Antolin
MELENDEZ, Mhel
PARUNGAN, Ivan
RAMOS, Jomar