The+Scarlet+Letter

-Hester Prynne led into town with a scarlet "A", representing adultery, and her daughter to be humiliated because she will not reveal the name of the father of her child.
 * Plot **:

-Hester's husband returns from England to America under the name Roger Chillingworth as a doctor and plots to find out who Hester cheated with. -Chillingworth visits Hester in jail. She agrees to keep his fake identity a secret. She agrees because she’s scared of her husband. -Some years pass, and Hester gets out of jail. She moves outside of the town and becomes a seamstress. She wants to live a normal life but the townspeople still treat her differently. -Then the Governor of the town wants to take Hester’s child (Pearl) away from her. Hester goes to the Governor’s house to try and stop him. Arthur Dimmesdale (the priest who is also the father of the child) stands up for her. -Meanwhile, Roger Chillingworth suspects Dimmesdale is the one who got his wife pregnant, so he makes friends with him to get the truth. After Chillingworth finds out the truth he torments Dimmesdale about what he did and makes him feel guilty. Dimmesdale feels awful about what he did. Dimmesdale's physical health declines with the emotional torture from Chillingworth as well as the guilt. -Hester finds out about Chillingworth's mindgames, so she meets Dimmesdale in the forest to tell him that Roger Chillingworth is really her husband. Then Hester and Dimmesdale plan to leave the country and go together to England. -Then Dimmesdale snaps and confesses to the whole town that he is the father of Pearl and dies. - Hester moves to Europe, Pearl grows up and gets married, and then Hester returns to Boston and dies.


 * Characters **:
 * Hester Prynne - the protagonist if the novel. Hester wears a scarlet A on her chest as a public reminder of her sin; because she has a baby and her husband has been away for years, it is implied that Hester must have been unfaithful. Hester never reveals the name of her lover to the townspeople, and so she must bear the shame herself. Hester proves to be a strong character because she never complains of having to wear the A, but walks with her head held high.
 * Pearl - Hester and Dimmesdale's child. She is the evidence of their adultery. She is beautiful, but treated with scorn, doesn't play with the other children. Her name is ironic because it does not fit her nature. She is an observant child and notices what the townspeople do not: the relationship between Hester and Dimmesdale.
 * Chillingworth - Hester's husband, physician, had been a wanderer travelling with Indians, old, deformed. Once he finds out that Dimmesdale is Pearl's father, he seeks revenge on Dimmesdale. He poisons Dimmesdale mentally, not physically, by asking questions that delve into Dimmesdale's heart and deepening teh guilt.
 * Dimmesdale - young, intelligent, eloquent, has religious fervor, pale, large brown melancholy eyes, tremulous mouth. He has an affair with Hester before the novel's start and is the father of Pearl. In the beginning, Dimmesdale acts innocently. He often holds his heart, and the reader later knows that he is outwardly, symbolically covering up the A that is hidden beneath his clothes and branded on his chest. This proves his lack of courage, but he doesn ot lack consciounce. Dimmesdale's secret inwardly torments him. He becomes physically weaker but morally stronger and eventually finds the courage to admit his guilt and dies.
 * Governor Bellingham - head and representative of community.
 * John Wilson - reverend, eldest clergyman of Boston, scholar,kind and genial spirit

mid 1600s, Puritan society of Boston, Massachusetts.
 * Setting **:

**Symbols** :
 * The scarlet "A" - //Adultery ~ Able ~ Autonomy//
 * For Hester: In the beginning of the novel, the A casts Hester as an adulteress and symbolizes her shame and ignominy. It is "represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly and the most prominent feature of her appearance," with her sin open for the world to see. Years later, the A transforms into a symbol of Hester's strength and ability to rise above what was dealt her. It stands for "Able." In the end, the A represents freedom for Hester because she can remove it from her clothes. When Hester returns to Boston after Pearl is fully grown, she wears the scarlet letter again, but it represents her personal atonement; she wears it for herself and not society.
 * Dimmesdale also bears the burden of an A branded on his chest. His A also represents guilt, but it is also hidden behind his clothes. It thus signifies a weakness in Dimmesdale because he did not admit to his adultery. In the end, Dimmesdale admits that he was Hester's fellow adulterer. When he admits his sin and dies, the A symbolizes freedom from his pain and guilt.
 * The Rosebush
 * Next to the prison door at the beginning of the novel.
 * It shows the ability of nature to endure. But at the same time the narrator demeans the importance of this symbol, by stating various interpretations it could have.
 * The Meteor
 * When Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold with hester and pearl, a meteor writing the letter "A" is plastered across the sky, signifying the fact that he should wear the same mark of shame that the mother does.
 * Pearl
 * Pearl can be viewed as a symbol within the novel. She is seen as the product of Hester's sin to the community, however Hester views her as a blessing.


 * Images **:
 * Themes **:

Individual vs. Society
Hawthorn first indicates the struggle through the prison door and the wild rose bush. The prison door symbolizes the authoritative force of the Puritan society while the rosebush represents the individual who resists

Hypocrisy and Sin
The Puritans banish Hester for her sins; however, Hester learns more becomes more enlightened than those in town because of the experience. The town also keeps treating Hester poorly even though Hester participates positively in€ society.

The scaffold scenes break the novel into 3 parts.
 * Structure: **
 * In the first scaffold scene Hester is alone with the baby Pearl. She wears a red A on her chest. The crowd watches as she is publicly condemned. Chillingworth walks amonst the crowd and Dimmesdale stands above on the balcony. When Dimmesdale asks "Who is the father?" he lacks courage because he knows that he is in fact the father. This scene introduces all of the main characters and how the novel will progress; Hester will struggle with the public humiliation, Dimmesdale will struggle with his internal guilt, and Chillingworth will find the father.
 * In the second scaffold scene Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are in the woods late at night. Dimmesdale is alone at first, but his shriek of agony attracts the attention of Hester and Pearl as they are walking home. They stand together on the scaffold, as it should it have been in the beginning: Dimmesdale with his hand over his heart, Hester with the scarlet A, and Pearl as their child. However, the forest is secluded from the Puritans so the truth is not yet revealed. Only Chillingworth, who is standing secretly in the bushes, sees the truth. Pearl spots him out when a meteor lights the night sky.
 * In the third scaffold scene, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl are all on the scaffold with the townspeople, including Chillingworth, watching. Dimmesdale gives a sermon and then admits his sin by revealing his scarlet letter on his chest. Dimmesdale's confession relieves him of his sin, essentially saving his soul before he dies. Pearl is no longer a father-less child, and Hester no longer bears her burden alone. Chillingworth's plans are foiled because he did not physically kill Dimmesdale himself.