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II MA English
CORE COURSE-X: AMERICAN LITERATURE (21PENC32)
Unit –IV- Fiction Dr. S. Femina

Plot of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter

The story takes place in the Puritan village of Boston, Massachusetts, during the first
half of the 17th Century. Several years before the novel begins, Hester Prynne came to the
New World to await the arrival of her husband who had business to conclude in Europe.
However, Hester’s husband was captured by Indians upon his arrival in New England and
did not arrive in Boston as Hester expected. While living alone in Boston and believing her
husband dead, Hester committed adultery and became pregnant. The village magistrates
imprisoned her for this sin and decreed she must wear a scarlet “A” on the bodice of her
dress for the rest of her life. While in prison, Hester, highly skilled in needlework,
elaborately embroidered the scarlet letter with gold thread.

Before her release from prison, Hester was forced to stand on the public scaffold
where all the villagers could see her. As the story opens, Hester is leaving the prison to take
her position on the scaffold. She wears the scarlet letter and carries with dignity her three-
month-old daughter Pearl. As Hester endures this public disgrace, Roger Chillingworth, an
old man new to the village, asks members of the crowd about her and learns as much of her
story as is commonly known.

When he asks the identity of the child’s father, he discovers Hester has refused to
reveal this information. From the balcony overlooking the scaffold, the young Reverend
Arthur Dimmesdale also asks for this information and eloquently appeals to Hester to
publicly name her partner in sin. She refuses.

Upon her return to prison, Hester is distraught, and Roger Chillingworth, a self-
proclaimed physician, comes to calm her and the babe. Chillingworth, who is actually
Hester’s husband, refuses to publicly acknowledge her and share in her shame. He makes
Hester promise to keep his true identity secret and vows to discover and avenge himself on
the man who has wronged him.

Hester and Pearl take up residence in a small cottage at the edge of the village. Using
her needlework skills, Hester supports herself and Pearl by sewing for the magistrates and
wealthy villagers. She also sews for the poor as an act of charity. Although they live humbly,
Hester’s one extravagance is the way she dresses Pearl. Hester fashions scarlet, elaborately
embroidered dresses for Pearl. The townspeople generally shun Hester and her daughter.

Three years pass, and Hester learns that the magistrates are considering taking
Pearl away from her. Hester passionately implores Governor Bellingham to allow her to
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keep Pearl, who is her sole joy as well as a constant reminder of her sin. The Reverend
Arthur Dimmesdale speaks on behalf of Hester, and Pearl is allowed to remain with her
mother. As Hester and Pearl leave the Governor’s Mansion, Mistress Hibbins, the
Governor’s sister, invites Hester to meet the Black Man in the forest. Hester happily
declines the offer because she must take care of Pearl.

The story now turns to Roger Chillingworth. Following his secret interview with
Hester in prison, Chillingworth becomes a respected member of the community and
personal medical advisor to Arthur Dimmesdale, whose health is failing. Chillingworth uses
his medical knowledge to treat the minister’s physical condition, but suspects some wound
or trouble in Dimmesdale’s soul is contributing to his declining health. Intent on
discovering the truth about Arthur Dimmesdale, Chillingworth one day comes upon the
minister in his sleep, pushes aside his shirt, and reads the secret of the minister’s heart—
the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is Hester Prynne’s partner in adultery and the father of
little Pearl. Chillingworth acknowledges Dimmesdale as his enemy and thus makes him the
unsuspecting victim of his malevolent revenge.

Although Dimmesdale lacks the courage to confess his sin publicly and risk ruining
his reputation as a man of God, he suffers privately. In addition to his constant mental
torment, he punishes himself physically with a bloody scourge, fasts to the point of
weakness, and keeps nightly vigils. On one of these vigil nights, seven years after Hester
stood in solitary shame upon the scaffold, Dimmesdale, thinking the rest of the town is
asleep, stands on that same scaffold. However, Hester and Pearl pass the scaffold as they
return home from watching at the deathbed of Governor Winthrop. Dimmesdale invites
them to ascend the steps and the three stand together on the scaffold. Pearl asks him if they
will stand together tomorrow, but Dimmesdale tells her it cannot be. Chillingworth sees the
trio on the scaffold. Dimmesdale appeals to Hester for support against the nameless horror
he feels for Chillingworth. Hiding his hatred for Dimmesdale, Chillingworth approaches and
leads the minister back home.

Hester is shocked by the decay of Dimmesdale’s nerve and moral force. She infers
Chillingworth to be the insidious cause of his weakened state. Realizing she has allowed
this to happen by keeping Chillingworth’s identity a secret, Hester resolves to talk to her
former husband and try to rescue Dimmesdale from his evil influence. Soon after, Hester
approaches Chillingworth and asks him to stop tormenting Dimmesdale. When
Chillingworth refuses, she tells her former husband she must reveal the secret of his
identity. Chillingworth tells her to do what she will with the minister.

Several days later, Hester intercepts Arthur Dimmesdale as he is walking through

the forest. The two retreat to the seclusion of the woods and talk while Pearl plays among
the nearby trees. Arthur tells Hester he detests living a lie and is relieved to look into the
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eyes of one who knows him for what he really is. Hester tells him that Chillingworth also
possesses this knowledge, and that he was the husband she betrayed. Dimmesdale is
initially horrified, but soon forgives Hester for keeping Chillingworth’s secret. Fearing
further revenge from Chillingworth, Dimmesdale asks Hester what he should do. She
suggests they leave Boston and return to the Old World. Arthur agrees, and they plan to
leave aboard the ship currently in the harbor. In their newly discovered freedom, Hester
removes the scarlet letter and the cap which binds her hair. Hester wants Arthur to know
Pearl and summons her from the trees. But Pearl, distressed by her mother’s altered
appearance, comes reluctantly. Pearl then bursts into a fit of passion and insists her mother
put on the letter and cap before she will behave civilly. Hester does this sadly. Dimmesdale
gives the child a kiss, which she immediately washes off in the brook.

Upon returning to the village, Hester makes arrangements with the ship’s captain
for the passage. Arthur is secretly pleased they will not leave until after Election Day when
he will have the honor of delivering the Election Sermon. When Election Day arrives, the
ship’s captain tells Hester that Chillingworth will be travelling with them. Hester cannot
warn Dimmesdale of this new development because the Election Procession, of which he is
part, is beginning. Reverend Dimmesdale’s sermon is a brilliant triumph, but as the
procession is leaving the church, he surprises everyone by inviting Hester and Pearl to
ascend the scaffold with him once again, this time in front of the entire village.
Chillingworth tries unsuccessfully to dissuade Dimmesdale from this action. Hester
supports Arthur, and Pearl holds his hand as the three of them climb onto the scaffold. The
scaffold is the only place Roger Chillingworth dares not follow Dimmesdale, and he looks
on unhappily as Dimmesdale escapes his revenge.

On the scaffold, Dimmesdale confesses his sin and tears away his shirt to reveal
what appears to be a scarlet “A” on his own breast. Chillingworth laments that Dimmesdale
has escaped him, and Dimmesdale tells him he too has sinned deeply. Pearl kisses her
father’s lips and her tears fall on his cheek. A dying man, Dimmesdale bids Hester farewell,
but cannot assure her they will meet again in Heaven, reminding her of the gravity of their
sin.

Dimmesdale is buried in the village cemetery. Roger Chillingworth dies within the
year, leaving Pearl a considerable amount of property. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, but
years later, Hester returns and takes up residence in her old cottage where she lives until
she dies. She is buried next to Dimmesdale, and although their graves do not touch, they
share a common gravestone.

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Major Themes in THE SCARLET LETTER

The Scarlet Letter: A Romance  is a historical fiction by American

author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. The novel tells the story of Hester
Prynne, who conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not married and then
struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. The most important
theme in the novel is Sin and Guilt. The setting of the novel is
Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. Nathaniel Hawthorne has written this novel
against puritan society. The Puritans believed that people are born sinners.
According to the puritans, sins like adultery are punishable by death.

In the novel The Scarlet Letter, there are three main characters who commit
sin. They are Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Rodger Chillingworth. When
the novel begins, the readers see the protagonist Hester Prynne standing on the
scaffold, wearing a dull gray dress with a large scarlet “A” which symbolizes
adultery. She wears the scarlet letter and carries with dignity her three-month-
old daughter Pearl. Hester’s punishment was to endure a public shaming for three
hours. Hester is in her own sphere, where her sin affects her livelihood and has
completely cut her off from the world. Whenever Hester stands before the crowd,
she feels very guilty because her innocent child Pearl is also punished for Hester’s
sin. Though Hester does sin and feels guilty throughout the novel, she has been
treated as an angel at the end of the novel.

Throughout the novel, Dimmesdale is responsible for two sins. The first thing
is his adultery with a married woman Hester though he is a reverend and belongs to
puritan society. He preaches to his congregation about sin when he himself is a
sinner. Next evil thing is he does not confess his sin to the public. Because he
believes that a reverend must act holy and can never sin. Therefore, throughout
his life he suffers through the guilt of his sin. After Hester is punished for the
crime, Dimmesdale is overwhelmed with guilt and sadness. His guilt mentally
tortures him and drove him to despair. Due to that, at the end of the novel, he
stands on the scaffold in front of the crowd and calls himself “the one sinner of
the world”.
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Out of the three sinners, Roger chillingworth is the greatest sinner in the
novel. Because, according to the puritans, if they repent their transgression, they
will be forgiven. Both Hester and Dimmesdale admitted their sin to the community
and more importantly to their God. But Chillingworth never feels guilty for the
terrible things he does. He is absolutely evil. When he realizes Dimmesdale is the
adulterer, his face is twisted with purely evil. He taunted Dimmesdale while he
lives with him. He provoked Dimmesdale to die with his words. Only the death of
Dimmesdale makes Chillingworth feel guilty. Thus, Sin strengthens Hester,
humanizes Dimmesdale and turns Chillingworth into a demon.

Criticism of Puritanism is another major theme of the novel. Hester’s crime is

as huge as that of Dimmesdale. However, one is caught and sentenced, while the
other is free. And the innocent child suffers only due to the supposed sins of her
parents.

Love and redemption is also a prominent theme in The Scarlet Letter. Hester
and Dimmesdale love each other. The result is the birth of Pearl. It is because of
love towards Dimmesdale, Hester doesn’t disclose his identity. Her silent sacrifice
wins Dimmesdale by the end. The theme of redemption looms large in the
background of the sin and punishment. Hester earns redemption by helping the
poor and working as a seamstress. On the other hand, Dimmesdale earns his
redemption when he confesses his crime.

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Hester Prynne

Hester Prynne is the protagonist and a young beautiful woman caught in

adultery and sentenced to wear the scarlet letter 'A' on her chest as a mark of
her crime. Although Hester Prynne is beautiful, her beauty barely compares to her
strength of character. Even when she is punished for her crime and publicly
humiliated, Hester does not break.

Hester Prynne remains exactly who she is: strong, kind, proud, but also
humble. She is honest about her affair, but after she is released from jail, she
isolates herself from the rest of the society and covers her beauty by wearing a
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hat. Appropriately distanced from everyone else, Hester raises her daughter who
she thinks God gave to her for a reason.

Another strong trait of Hester's is her honesty. Although her husband

demands to know the name of her lover, Hester refuses to turn her lover in.
Because of this, Hester endures her punishment alone.

While the novel is, in large part, a record of the torment Hester suffers
under the burden of her symbol of shame, eventually, after the implied marriage of
her daughter Pearl and the death of Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, Hester
becomes an accepted and even a highly valued member of the community. Instead
of being a symbol of scorn, Hester, and the letter A, according to the narrator,
"became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet
with reverence too." The people of the community even come to Hester for
comfort and counsel in times of trouble and sorrow because they trust her to
offer unselfish advice toward the resolution of upsetting conflict. Thus, in the end,
Hester becomes an important figure in preserving the peace and stability of the
community. Though Hester is badly treated by the puritan people for her sin, she
transformed her given identity called sinner to an Angel in the same society.

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Arthur Dimmesdale

Arthur Dimmesdale is one of the most complex characters in the novel The
Scarlet Letter. Arthur Dimmesdale is a well respected Boston reverend who has an
affair with Hester Prynne and the secret father of Pearl. Dimmesdale is the
personification of "human frailty and sorrow." Dimmesdale's sin is not adultery but
not having the courage to admit it. Therefore he has the sin of concealment.
Dimmesdale's guilt is filled with mental anguish, which serves as a constant
reminder of his sin. He remains silent so that he can continue to do God's work as a
minister. He loves Hester deeply, but he can only show his passion for her in the
forest or in darkness. He is shy, retiring, well loved and respected by his public. So
Dimmesdale is too frightened and selfish to reveal his sin and bear the burden of
punishment with Hester. Yet at the same time, Dimmesdale secretly punishes
himself for his sin by fasting and whipping himself. Ultimately the suffering and
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punishment he endures, though self-inflicted, proves far worse than Hester's or

Pearl's punishment. It suggests that betrayal and selfishness are greater sins than
adultery. Dimmesdale's guilty conscience overwhelms him like a plague, robbing him
of his health and preventing him from raising his daughter. Hawthorne introduces
Dimmesdale as a weak and cowardly man who refuses to take responsibility for his
actions. The Rev. Dimmesdale is a transitional character. At the beginning of the
novel, he is outwardly good but inwardly deceitful and by the end of the novel he
becomes both outwardly and inwardly truthful. His eventual confession comes too
late, and he dies a victim of his own pride.

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