Roger Chillingsworth

Roger Chillingsworth is actually Hester's husband in disguise. When he sends her to America, while he ties up some loose ends in Europe he is captured by native Americans. He finally arrives in Boston, only to discover Hester being displayed on a scaffold with her illegitamate child. He then decideds to go in disguise, using the name Roger Chillingsworth as his alias. He is a very smart man and uses his abilites to find and destroy Hester's mysterious lover. Throughout the book he is set on revenge and the cause of pain, emotionally and physically.


That old man's revenge has been blacker than my ... sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!" (17.21)

Hester Prynne

Hester Prynne is the leading lady or main character of The Scarlet Letter. Prynne has an affair with a puritan minister while waiting for her husband to arrive in America. When Prynne became pregnant the townspeople knew something was wrong because Prynne had not seen her husband in two years. The people of the town conclude that Prynne has committed adultery. Authority threw Prynne in jail and force her to wear a a red piece of cloth shaped like an “A” pinned to her dress, hence the name “scarlet letter”. Prynne delivers a baby girl named Pearl in jail. Soon after Pearl’s birth, authority parade Prynne in the streets for all to see her transgressions. Prynne goes through public persecution while the father of her baby remains anonymous. In the end, the father goes public and both him and her husband die and Hester and Pearl move to England. Years later Hester returned to Boston. Prynne was a great example of a strong and courageous woman

"'No, my little Pearl!' said her mother. 'Thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have none to give thee!'

Bibliography

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam, 1986. Print
Liukkonen, Petri. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." Www.kirjasto.sci.fi. 2008. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. .
"Scarlet Letter Quotes." Docstoc? Documents, Templates, Forms, Ebooks, Papers & Presentations. Docstoc, 2010. Web. 5 Apr. 2010. .
"The Scarlet Letter." Shmoop: Study Guides & Teacher Resources. Shmoop University, Inc., 2010. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. .
"SparkNotes: The Scarlet Letter: Character List." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. SparkNotes LLC, 2010. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. .
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 21 Sept. 2009. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. .
"Zeitgeist." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 05 Apr. 2010.

Plot Summary

The book, The Scarlet Letter, is based around the character of Hester Prynne. It takes place in 17th century Boston. Hester's husband Roger Chillingworth goes away for two years. During that time, Hester commits adultery with Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and gives birth to her daughter, pearls. Pearl is born while Hester is still in prison. When Hester is taken out of jail, she is taken to the town scaffold, where she is publically shamed. Hester is then forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her clothes. Even though Hester is shunned by the town, she is still generous and helps the people of the town.
Chillingworth tells Hester to not tell anyone that he is in town so that he is able to go out and seek revenge on her lover. Dimmesdale feels a lot of guilt and beats himself to punish himself for the sin. Dimmesdale's identity as Pearl's father remains a secret until to the people of the town until the end of the book, where he reveals it to them at the scaffold by ripping off his shirt and a scarlet letter carved into his chest is exposed. After the death of both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, Hester and Pearl spend several years in England, but finally go back to Boston.

Scaffold Scene in the movie The Scarlet Letter (1979)

Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Ka74rfGzw

Literary Elements

Nathaniel Hawthorne's tone in The Scarlet Letter is reflective during the introduction. The custom house surveyor discusses his life and his reasons for deciding to write. The body of the book is somewhat ironic at parts. For example, Pearl is the youngest main character and yet the most wise. Hawthorne's voice encompasses his reflective and ironic tone, plus diction which is typical of the 1850's. His purpose in writing this book is to entertain.
The major conflict of the novel is Hester being forced to wear the scarlet "A" as punishment of her sin. She is initally judged because of the scarlet letter. When Chillingsworth finds out about Hester's unfaithfulness, Dimmesdale becomes the object of his revenge. This leads to more conflict between the protagonist, Hester, and the antagonist, Chillingsworth. Possible moods of the novel are resentful and fearful. I resented Dimmesdale for not being honest about fathering Pearl, but I also feared that Chillingsworth would harm him.

Dimmesdale

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is an intelligent man with a strong conscience. After cheating with Hester, he feels enormous guilt concerning his actions. The guilt he feels helps him to create powerful sermons on sin which he preaches to the townspeople. Dimmesdale's congregation sees him as a nearly perfect person, which drives Dimmesdale's feelings of guilt even further. Since he was not punished by society, as Hester was, he punishes himself instead. Dimmesdale uses whips, fasting, and holding vigils as forms of inflicting punishment on himself. After Dimmesdale publicly confesses his sin, Pearl kisses him and he dies.

"Come up hither, Hester, thou and little Pearl...Ye have both been here before, but I was not with you. Come up hither once again, and we will stand all three together!"