this presentation is one of my academic activities in department of English at M. K. Bhavnagar university, submitted to Dr. Dilip Barad

2. Name : Nagla Drashti p.
Sem. : 3
Paper no : 10 American Literature
Presentation on : Character Study of Hester Prynne in
The Scarlet Latter
Batch Year : 2016-2018
Submitted to : S.B. Gardi , Department of English,
Maharaja krishnakumarsinhji,
Bhavnagar University.

3. Introduction of the Author
Nathaniel Hawthorne
• He was born in Salem, MA in
1804
• Descendent of early Puritans
• His father died at sea, when he
was 4 years old. So, he had a
lonely childhood.
• In the year 1837 he published
‘Twice Told Tales’- Poe thought
that he was a genius
• Married Sophia peabody in
1846
• He firstly wrote Scarlet Latter as
a short story then with the
advise of publisher’s he
converted it into a Novel.
• He was died in 1864

4.  Main character was Hester
Prynne
 Roger Chillingworth was
her husband, who send Her
to the Bosten.
 Arthur Dimmsdale was a
lover of Hester, after left by
Chillingworth.
 Pearl Prynne was a symbol
of love of Hester and
Dimmsdale.
 Major themes are Sin,
Isolation and Fate and Free
will.

5. • When Hester is
first introduced,
she is described
as a ‘young
woman Perfect
elegance on a
large scale’.

6. What is Scarlet Letter?
Adultery as a Sin The malefactress
He fine red clothes, surrounded with an
elaborated embroidery and fantastic flourishes of
gold thread

7. Punishment
• Hester is punished
with the public
humiliation.
• She stands strong
during of her
sentence.
• Hester does not care
what others think of
her and is not
ashamed of her child.
• She takes pride on
her child

8. Hester and Dimmesdale
 Hester is loving and compassionate, she protects
Dimmesdale from the same humiliation and frustration
the town people have put her through.
 She protects him for he “might endure his agony as well
as mine!... I will not speak!..”

9. Hester and Pearl
• For most of the story , Pearl serves
as a living symbol of her mother’s
sin.
• She is the walking shame of the
crime her mother committed.
• Hester does not look at her
daughter in that way though.
• Her daughter is her motive to live.
• She named her daughter Pearl ”as
being of great price-purchased with
all she had-her mother’s only
treasure!”

10. Hester is strong
• Hester goes through public humiliation
alone.
• She raises her daughter without a father in a
time that it was seen as sinful
• She does not push her daughter away even
when the town sees her as mischievous.
• Hestre stays in the town when she is free to
leave and start over.
• Although eventually she leaves, she comes
back because “here had been her sin; here,
her sorrow, and here was yet to be her
penitence ”

11. Hester is charitable
• Again, she does not reveal Dimmesdale to the
public even though he committed the same
‘sin-crime’ as she did.
• She feed the poor although they also see her
as a sinner.
• “it is our Hester, -the town’s own Hester- Who
is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so
comfortable for the afflicted.”