Donovan Dicks

English 11 AP
Scarlet Letter Prep Guide

Plot:
Prison is characterized; overall unappealing surroundings, save one rose bush
Hester Prynne exits the prison with her baby daughter, Pearl, and the scarlet letter A on
her chest
Makes way through the crowd, is forced to stand on a scaffold in front of her society for
hours
Recognizes someone in the back of the crowd (Master Prynne), town clergy (specifically
Reverend Dimmesdale) implore Hester to reveal who her partner in sin is
Hester meets her husband under the guise of Roger Chillingworth in the Prison, he
reveals his intentions to seek revenge and discover who Hesters partner is
Seven years go by, Hester is alienated from society, lives with Pearl on the outskirts of
town, does much sewing work for all sorts of occasions
Pearl develops and is described in detail
Hester and Pearl attend the Governors Hall, which is quite at odds with Puritan ideas;
argues with governor for the right to keep Pearl, Dimmesdale supports this
First inclination that Dimmesdale is Hesters partner
Dimmesdales health declines, Chillingworth fashions himself as a physician, he is highly
regarded by the townspeople, the two move in together
Chillingworth manipulates and invades Dimmesdales mind searching for his secret
Dimmesdale punishes himself, holds a vigil on the scaffold where he meets Hester and
Pearl, they connect
Hester is a shadow of her former self, but is seen in better light by the community
She decides to reveal Chillingworths identity to Dimmesdale
Hester and Dimmesdale recede into the forest and Hester reveals the secret, and they
decide to run away together
The town celebrates Election Day, it is revealed that Chillingworth will be joining them
on the boat to England
The procession passes through, Chillingworth will now be getting Dimmesdale onto the
boat, Dimmesdale gives a sermon
Dimmesdale is on his way to the town hall but goes to join Hester and Pearl and
confesses his sin to the town on the scaffold , then dies, later so does Chillingworth

Characters:
Hester Prynne protagonist, wears the scarlet letter, committed adultery with
Dimmesdale, married to Roger Chillingworth (Prynne); skilled with a needle, opposes
Puritan values, desires freedom, strong willed
Pear daughter of Hester and Dimmesdale, wild, flighty, characterized often as a bird or
imp, unpredictable, contains hints of evil nature
Arthur Dimmesdale a reverend, extremely sensitive/emotional, father of Pearl, sinned
with Hester, respected and admired by citizens of Salem
 Roger Chillingworth Hesters husband, intelligent, scholarly, far older than Hester,
noble in English society, wealthy, manipulative, evil

Themes:
Change is natural and natural change is good
Sins can be forgiven, hidden sins burden the soul
Puritan society is hypocritical and blind
Revenge is an evil pursuit and will ultimately not succeed

Symbols:
The Scarlet Letter: symbolizes sin itself
Pearl: the product of sin
The Governors Mansion: hypocrisy of the Puritan society
The Black Man: the devil

Quotations:
[Pearl] now writhed in convulsions of pain, and was a forcible type, in its little frame, of the
moral agony which Hester Prynne had borne throughout the day (68)
- The baby Pearl openly expresses the struggle her mother has endured in silence
throughout the day

The sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something
on your bosom (180)
- The rays of sunshine linger on Pearl while they disappear as Hester approaches. The
glory and purity of the sun avoids Hester as she is tainted with sin, but the child is pure

Open Essay Introduction:

1. The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is the fictional story of a woman,
Hester Prynne, who committed the sin of adultery in the Puritan society of Salem. She
was married to one Roger Chillingworth, a very deceptive and intelligent man. The plot
of The Scarlet Letter is driven in large part by the complexity of the devilish desires of
Chillingworth mixed with his cunning intelligence.