The Scarlet Letter
Mikayla Aylsworth
By: Nathaniel Hawthorn
Historical and Romance Fiction
Summary
The Scarlet Letter is a novel about Hester Prynne. She settled into the Puritan settlement near Boston before her husband, waiting his arrival. In the meantime Hester had an affair with an unknown man and has a baby. She got sent to jail for adultery, and then make her stand in front of the whole town to be judged for a punishment. Another punishment is she is forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest for the rest of her life. The "A" stand for adulterer, since she slept with another man while married. While standing in front of the town with her daughter pearl, she see's a man and goes white like she had just seen a ghost. The man she saw was her husband in disguise. He had changed his named to Roger Chillingworth and practices medicine and settled in Boston for revenge on Hester.
Hester gets a job as a seamstress to support herself and her daughter. They live in a small cottage on the edge of town. The community tries and takes Pearl away, but since Arthur Dimmesdale helped Hester.
Dimmesdale has a strange heart problem which is caused by psychological stress and he needs constant supervision. Chillingworth volunteers to move in with him because he thinks that there his connection between him and Hester.
Finally, Hester learns to accept her punishment. Dimmesdale and Hester also come clean about being secret lovers. The two of them plan to run off together to Europe, but then he dies and Hester left anyway.
The scarlet letter
The letter "A" on Hester's chest stood for adultery. It was punishment for her to wear it the rest of her life.
Roger Chillingworth
He dressed up in a strange combination of traditional European and native american clothing, in disguise to get revenge.
Pearl
Pearl was Hester's daughter and she valued her the most.