The
Scarlet Letter is about a woman named Hester Prynne who lives in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1640s near the very beginning of the colonial
period, she has an adulterous affair and has a baby, and the colony makes her
wear a scarlet letter A on her chest for adulteress and treat her as an
outcast, she keeps the baby’s father a secret but his identity comes out at the
end of the book, the first chapter is called the custom-house, and it tells the
story of how the author was working as the administrator of a custom house in
Salem when he found an embroidered letter a and some papers that tell Hester
Prynne’s story, when he got fired from his job he found time to write The
Scarlet Letter.
The
first scene of the actual novel has Hester coming out of the jail with a baby
in her arms, and The Scarlet Letter a embroidered on her chest, the baby is
three months old, Hester was in jail for adultery and since no one knows who
the baby’s father was, we can assume she was discovered and sentenced to jail time
when her pregnancy started to show, the first thing Hester has to do is stand
on a scaffold where they keep a pillory which is a device for locking people up
in public, they don’t lock her into the pillory but she has to stand on the
platform for a long time with everyone staring at her, eventually she sees
someone at the edge of the crowd, this man is her husband, he had sent
her ahead of him to Massachusetts while he stayed behind in Europe, and when he
tried to join her, he encountered various mishaps and wound up imprisoned by
Native Americans.
While
she was having her affair and being in jail, he wanders out of the forest on
exactly the day that she’s up in front of the pillory, he doesn’t tell anyone
who he is and he puts his finger to his lips, so Hester won’t reveal his
identity, the governor and the eldest clergyman asked the young minister
Reverend Dimmesdale to speak to Hester about her sin Dimmesdale asks Hester’s
reveal the father of her baby, so he can confess and atone for his crimes with
her we learned soon that Dimmesdale himself as the father, but has – refuses to
reveal this secret to anyone, later Hester is back in herself for the end of
her stay in jail and her husband comes to see her posing as a doctor he says he
forgives her for cheating on him, but he makes her promise not to reveal who he
is and he swears he’ll find out who the father is.
From
that point on he starts calling himself Roger Chillingworth, Hester lives in an
isolated little cottage with her baby, she has to wear the Scarlet Letter all
the time and she’s treated as an outcast, she’s skilled at sewing though and
she makes her living doing needlework, she can make fancy lace garments for
officials to wear in ceremonies, though she spends a lot of her time making
clothes for the poor, the only thing she does extravagantly for herself is make
clothes for her daughter pearl she made the embroidered Scarlet Letter that she
wears, and she makes pearl look kind of like The Scarlet Letter – when pearls
about three and a half Hester hears that some people in the colony are saying
pearl should be taken away and given to foster parents who will raise her
better than Hester.
So
Hester takes pearl to the governor’s mansion to tell the governor not to do
this, the Reverend Wilson, the Reverend Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth are
all with the governor when she gets there Reverend Wilson asks pearl some
religious questions to see if Hester’s been raising her right, and pearl who’s
very wild acts like she doesn’t know what they’re talking about which makes the
governor think Hester is a bad mom, but Hester appeals to Dimmesdale to speak
for her and Dimmesdale says that God gave pearl to hester to save her soul, he
points out that pearl looks like The Scarlet Letter, so Hester is clearly using
pearl to remember her sin and repent the governor is convinced and Hester keeps
pearl Chillingworth builds a new identity for himself ,as a doctor he’s very
well educated in European medicine in the Native Americans, taught in
many cures as well the colony is happy to have a good doctor since their
starkclergymen, the young Reverend Dimmesdale is clearly sick and doesn’t seem
like you’ll live a long time.
He
always puts his hand over his heart like he’s in pain so the townspeople kind
of push them together as doctor and patient and eventually people persuade them
to live together in the same house, but over time some people start to see
Chillingworth as a demonic influence on Dimmesdale which is right since
Chillingworth suspects that Dimmesdale is the father he thinks dimmsdale’s
guilt is what’s killing him, and he only wants to find out the secret and
tortured Dimmesdale more Chillingworth constantly questions, and prized into
dimmsdale’s life to try to get Dimmesdale to reveal his secret, once pearl and
Hester see them together and pearl warns her mother not to get caught by black
man like the minister has the black man is what the colonists called the devil.
One
day Chillingworth goes a little too far and says that dimmsdale’s disease must
actually be a spiritual problem or secret Dimmesdale tells him it’s none of his
business, he’ll confess to God when Dimmesdale goes to slee,p Chillingworth
opens Dimmesdale shirt and sees something on his chest that tells him
everything he needs to know, now Chillingworth can torture Dimmesdale at will
even though Dimmesdale has no idea that Chillingworth knows the secret,
Chillingworth can make sure he’s always reminded of it Dimmesdale is consumed
by guilt at the fact that he slept with Hester, and that no one knows it he
gives the best sermons in the colony because he understands sin so well, and
can empathize but the fact that everyone thinks he’s so holy makes his guilt
worse, he wants to confess to his congregation and he tells them he’s a sinner,
but they only like him more when he’s alone he whips himself and starves
himself and, he sees visions of his parents and pearl and Hester late one
night, he goes out and stands on the pillory platform ,he shrieks and he thinks
people will come out and find him there and know his secret, but no one does.
After
a while various people who were at the former governors deathbed do come by
Hester is one of them, and she walks by with pearl Dimmesdale invites them to
come and hold hands with him on the pillory a meteor passes across the sky, and
its light creates the outline of the letter a in the clouds in the light
Dimmesdale can see Chillingworth, he asks pearl who it is saying he’s terrified
of that man Chillingworth comes and takes Dimmesdale home, saying he’s been
sleepwalking by the time pearl is 7 Hester has earned a lot of respect in the
town because she spends most of her time helping people, and she’s always there
offering comfort when people are sick or dying, the townspeople even start
talking about taking off the letter but Hester is also used to being an outcast
by now, and she doesn’t really care about society’s ideas of right and wrong
anymore which is the opposite of what the colonists wanted the letter to do
when she sees how tormented Dimmesdale is, and realizes that Chillingworth is
the reason.
She
goes to confront Chillingworth she finds Chillingworth at the beach, and tells
him he’s turned into a fiend, he admits that he’s made Dimmesdale suffer, but
he can’t stop himself, Hester says that she’s going to tell Dimmesdale the
truth and she points out that Chillingworth could forgive and forget
everything, Chillingworth says he can’t do that, Hester is disgusted that she
was ever married to Chillingworth, and she starts thinking about Dimmesdale all
over again, she hasn’t really repented for loving Dimmesdale, she goes into the
forest to meet Dimmesdale as he’s returning from a trip, and they speak for the
first time in seven years he admits he’s completely miserable, she tells him
that she’s there for him, and she tells him the truth about Chillingworth he’s
horrified and angry when he hears about this, but she insists that he has to
forgive her, and ultimately he does.
She
urges him to leave the colony, and start a fresh life somewhere else he says he
doesn’t have the strength to do it alone, but she says she’ll come with him and
be his wife Dimmesdale decides that he will leave town with her, and she takes
off her Scarlet Letter and throws it away then lets her hair down they talk
about pearl and Dimmesdale wonders a pearl will accept him, they call to pearl
but she won’t come across the brook until Hester puts back on the letter, the
minister kisses her on the forehead, but she runs and washes it off in the
stream, she’s mad because he won’t acknowledge and public that he’s friends
with them Dimmesdale comes back into town having agreed to run away with
Hester, and pearl on a ship in a few days he’s feeling confused and kind of
crazy every time he sees someone he can barely restrain himself from saying or
doing something evil.
Eventually
he makes it home and throws himself into writing his last big sermon the
Election Day sermon on the day the new governor is sworn in when Dimmesdale has
to give his big sermo,n everyone in the colony has gathered together for a holiday,
Hester has made arrangements with the ship’s captain for them to leave, but the
ship’s captain finds her and let her know that Roger Chillingworth is coming
with them, Dimmesdale and all the officials of the colony process into the
church and Hester has to stand outside listening to the sermon as she worries
about what the ship captain said, and as all the people they’re standing gawk
at her letter worse than ever.
The
sermon is a huge hit the biggest sermon ever given in New England, Dimmesdale
comes out and takes Hester and pearl by the hand and leads them up onto the
pillory platform with him, Chillingworth tries to stop him but can dimmsdale
says he should have stood with them seven years before then he opens his shirt
and reveals a Scarlet Letter on his chest, no one knows how it got there it
could be a sign from God or he might have scarred himself, it’s a mystery,
Dimmesdale asks pearl if she’ll kiss him now and she does hester asks if
they’ll be together in heaven, and he says no they need to repent for their
sin, then he dies afterward Chillingworth dies and leaves a huge inheritance to
pearl, Hester and pearl leave the colony for a while, and pearl apparently
marries someone rich in Europe, but Hester eventually comes back to live in her
cottage and wear her scarlet letter again, Hester is buried beside Dimmesdale,
but not too close beside him and they share a headstone with an A on it.