The Scarlet Letter (1850) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Hester Prynne: She is a strong spirited woman,intelligent, kind and also passionate. She was disgraced for committing an adulteress in her community for being married, but having an affair with another man and a child as well. This action although had shaped her into an important woman figure.
• Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale: Dimmesdale is a young man who achieved fame in England as a theologian and then emigrated to America. He is the reverend and preacher of the town.
• Arthur Dimmesdale: Add a description of this character.
• Mr. Wilson
• Master Dimmesdale
• Pearl: Hester’s illegitimate daughter. Pearl is a young girl with a moody, mischievous spirit and an ability to perceive things that others do not.
• Bellingham
• James
• Roger Chillingworth: The name that Hester’s husband assumes when he arrives in the New England town and sees her public shame/infant.
• Isaac Johnson
• Master Brackett
• Apostle Eliot
• Governor Bellingham: Wealthy, elderly gentleman who spends much of his time consulting with the other town fathers.
• Winthrop
• John Wilson
• Speedyclaskon: Speedy
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Septimius Felton
• Julian Hawthorne
• Mistress Hibbins: Mistress Hibbins is a widow who lives with her brother, Governor Bellingham. She is considered to be a witch of some sort.
• Rev. John Wilson: Boston’s elder clergyman and Puritan father, Reverend Wilson supported the punishment of sinners.
• Mr. Surveyor Pue: One of the Surveyors in the custom house.

Quotes edit see section history

• “In such emergencies, Hester's nature showed itself warm and rich; a wellspring of human tenderness, unfailing to every real demand, and inexhaustible by the largest. Her breast, with its badge of shame, was but the softer pillow for the head of that needed one. She was self-ordained a Sister of Mercy; or, we may rather say, the world's heavy hand had so ordained her, when neither the world nor she looked forward to this result. The letter was the symbol of her calling……They said that it meant 'Able'; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength.”

• “Ever and anon, too, there came a glare of red light out of his eyes; as if the old man's soul were on fire, and kept on smoldering duskily within his breast, until, by some causal puff of passion, it was blown into a momentary flame. This he repressed, as speedily as possible, and strove to look as if nothing of the kind had happened. In a word, old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a devil's office.”

• “Strengthened by years of hard and solemn trial, she felt herself no longer so inadequate to cope with Roger Chillingworth as on that night, abased by sin, and half maddened by the ignominy that was still new, when they had talked together in the prison chamber. She had climbed her way, since then, to a higher point. The old man, on the other hand, had brought himself nearer to her level, or perhaps below it, by the revenge which he had stooped for."”

• “Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart! Else it may be their miserable fortune, when some mightier touch than their own may have awakened all her sensibilities, to be reproached even for the calm content, the marble image of happiness, which they will have imposed upon her as the warm reality.”

• “But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed, from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman. She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness. . . . The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.”

• “One token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another.”

• “A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.”

• “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”

• “To the untrue man, the whole universe is false.”

• “It is to the credit of human nature that except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love.”

• “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”

• “Why should he toil and moil, and be at so much trouble to pick himself up out of the mud, when, in a little while hence, the strong arm of his Uncle will raise and support him? Why should he work for his living here, or go to dig gold in California, when he is so soon to be made happy, at monthly intervals, with a little pile of glittering coin out of his Uncle's pocket?”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Bellingham
• Puritan Massachusetts
• 1642
• New England
• Heaven
• Providence
• Salem
• Boston

Organizations edit see section history

• The Puritan church: Not named in the book but something to be distinguished from Roman Catholicism and Quakerism

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Indulge: Describe this term.
• Dotage: Old age, with its mental troubles.
• Antinomian: A believer in the Christian doctrine that faith alone, not obedience to the moral law, is necessary for salvation; to the Puritans, the Antinomian doctrine is heretical.
• Cope: A vestmentworn by priests for certain ceremonies. Here, anything that covers like a cope, a canopy over, or the sky.
• Ignominious: Deserving or causing public disgrace or shame.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Puritanism: Utopia of human virtue
• Roses: Describe this theme.
• Trees and forest
• Rosebush: The rosebush outside the prison door represents hope. The rosebush is the sprouting of a new idea of living outside the laws of society. Hester's sin grows into something beautiful as with Pearl and a new identity for herself seperate from society.
• The Letter "A": Representative of Hester's sin (adultery). It is more of a trifling symbol compared to a living and breathing child. It is red to symbolize the blood or love of a human that is inclined to indulge in passion. It can also represent the fire that will forever burn Hester as she rots in hell for her sin: in the eyes of the Puritans. Out of the fire however there emerges a white and pure pearl.
• Little Pearl: Hester's daughter Pearl is a paradox. She is the embodiment of Hester's sin, yet she is Hester's only joy in life.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Manuel Ortiz Braschi (Editor) - for Unique Enterprises / Kindle edition
2. (Reader) - Jimcin Recordings
3. Shelly Frasier (Reader) - Tantor Media
4. Flo Gibson - Recorded Books
5. Cindy Hardin Killavey (Reader)
6. Dick Hill (Reader) - Brilliance Audio
7. Michael Learned (Reader) - The Audio Partners Publishing Corp.
8. Jane Seymour (Reader) - for Multilingua Inc.
9. Sharon Stone (Reader) - for Dove
10. kristen Underwood (Reader) - Blackstone Audio
11. Annie Wauters (Reader) - Commuter's Library
12. Katinka Wolf (Reader) - NAXOS

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Guardian's 1000 (Love)
• 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2008)
• The Observer's 100 Greatest Novels of All Time (Finalist, 2003)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 741.5973

Notes for Parents edit see section history

A high school level novel, dealing with premarital sex and child birth.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Nathaniel Hawthorne Society: The Nathaniel Hawthorne Society is dedicated to the study and appreciation of the life and works of the author.
• Project Gutenberg: Free e-book, full text

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Easy A (IMDb): 2010 modernization of the novel starring Emma Stone, Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci.
• The Scarlet Letter (IMDb): 1995 American film adaptation. It was directed by Roland Joffé and stars Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, and Robert Duvall. This version was "freely adapted" from the novel and deviated from the original story. Universally panned by critics, the film was also a box office bomb. It was nominated for seven Golden Raspberry Awards at the 1995 ceremony, winning "Worst Remake or Sequel."

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