“The Scarlet Letter”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel about a woman named Hester who commits adultery. The setting of the story takes place in a Puritan settlement, in Boston. The year is 1642 and the community is very strict and religious. When Hester’s secret becomes known to the public and she births a daughter by the name Pearl, Hester is publicly punished and is made to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her dress. “When asked who the father of the child is, she refuses to name him” (Sheldon, 1984). When she is being punished publicly by standing on the village scaffold for three hours, she sees her husband who she thought was “lost at sea” (Sheldon, 1984). He is outraged that his wife is the only one being punished and the father of her child is not known. He takes up a new name of Roger Chillingworth and decides to find the man with whom his wife committed adultery. He disguises himself and becomes a physician. When Hester and Pearl go to jail, he visits them there and discloses his plans to his wife, taking a promise from her that she will not reveal his true identity. “After she is released from prison, she moves to the outskirts of town and leads a life in solitude with her daughter” (Sheldon, 1984). Pearl’s behavior starts to slowly get out of hand and the Governor attempts to take her away from Hester. Hester argues with the Governor and he leaves Pearl to her. Arthur Dimmesdale is the minister of the settlement and is a strong supporter of Hester. Meanwhile, Chillingworth makes a name for himself as the town doctor and develops a close relationship with Dimmesdale. He suspects the minister of being the man he is looking for. Dimmesdale becomes sick because of his secret and eventually, Chillingworth sees what looks like the letter “A” on the minister’s chest. He does not doubt his guess anymore and uses this knowledge to make the minister suffer in the feeling of his guilt. Hester realizes that Dimmesdale has gotten sick over his guilty conscience. At one point they meet in the forest and Hester tells the minister about her husband and who he is. Their feelings resume and they decide to move to Europe, away from England and the judgmental people. But Dimmesdale realizes that he is dying and decides to confess. During his last sermon, he gets up on the scaffold where Hester was punished and confesses before dying in her arms. “Chillingworth also dies and leaves a large sum of money to Pearl” (Bloom, 2009). Pearl and Hester move to Europe where Pearl marries an aristocrat. “Hester then returns to England and resumes wearing the letter “A” voluntarily“ (Bloom, 2009). After years of living in the settlement, she dies and is buried near the grave of the minister, with the letter “A” on their common tombstone (Bloom, 2009).
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804, in Massachusetts, Salem, and the story “The Scarlet Letter” was published in the year 1850. “He went to Bowdoin College in 1821 and graduated in 1824. His first published work was a novel called “Fanshawe”, in 1828” (James, 1879). He was not very pleased with its quality, comparing it to his later works. In the next years, he published several short stories calling them “Twice-Told Tales”. In 1838 he was engaged to Sophia Peabody. They had three children and Nathaniel Hawthorne died on May 19th, 1864 (James, 1879).
References
Bloom, H. (2009). The scarlet letter. Broomal, United States: Infobase Publishing.
James, H. (1879). Hawthorne. Ithaca, United States: Cornell University Press.
Sheldon, S. (1984). Nathaniel Hawthorne’s the scarlet letter. Hauppauge, United States: Barron’s Educational Series.