The Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers

The Scarlet Letter By: Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter has four main characters, Hester Prynne, the woman accused of Adultery, Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband from Amsterdam. They are still married and no one knows that they are. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the man who Hester committed the crime with, and Pearl. The story takes place in Boston, where Hester is accused of adultery and has to wear the letter A on her chest. Hester receives her punishment on a Scaffold. The Reverend Dimmesdale asked Hester who the other person was that helped her commit the act of adultery with her. Hester doesn’t reply. As Hester is on the Scaffold, she is holding her child, Pearl. After a while they leave Hester on the Scaffold in the hot sun for more than one hour as part of her punishment. Then they took her to jail where she stayed for more than a year. While Hester and Pearl are there, Chillingworth comes into the picture and pretends that he is a doctor and goes to take care of the women and the child. There, Hester and Chillingworth talk about what happened, and asks her who is the father of this child? Hester would not tell the identity of Pearl’s father. When Hester doesn’t say, Chillingworth makes her promise that she will not tell that he is her long last husband. Hester says ye s, but Chillingworth tells Hester that he will stay and he will find out the name of Pearl’s father. Then he leaves Hester and Pearl. One year later, Hester was released from jail. Hester cannot live in town because of what happened, the town people think that Hester is evil. They don’t want her there; they use Hester as an example of what happens when a person commits a sin in the Puritan life. So now Hester lives in the country where she makes cloths in order to make a living for herself. She shows off the wonderful clothing for Pearl. Pearl, at the moment, is the only friend Hester has. Later in the story, Hester goes to take a pair of gloves, which she made, to the governor. She sees the governor outside of the house; he is with Mr. Wilson, Arthur Dimmesdale, and old Roger Chillingworth. When they see her and Pearl, Pearl starts to act up. They walk up to them and say that they are going to take Pearl away from Hester, and make her go to church every morning.