This document provides a summary of the novel "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It describes the main character, Hester Prynne, who is punished for adultery by being forced to wear a scarlet "A" and is ostracized by her community. Over time, the scarlet letter comes to represent Hester's strength and good works helping others, rather than her shame. The document also analyzes Hester as a dynamic character who remains strong despite her punishment, and discusses how she is initially ashamed of her sin but later wears the scarlet letter with courage.

1. Name: Rupa Bambhaniya
Paper No: 10 The American literature
Enrollment no: 2069108420200002
Class: M.A sem 3
Roll no : 21
Submitted by: Smt.S.B.Gardhi, Department of
English
Email I’d rupabambhniya166@gmail.com

2. The Scarlet Letter
By
Nathaniel Hawthorne

4. • In 17th-Cetury Puritan Boston, Hester Prynne is on
trial for adultery.
• She has a 3-month old baby named Pearl, and
Hester
• refuses to name the father. As punishment, Hester
must wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest for the
rest of her life.
• The Scarlet Letter “A” begins in the novel as a
symbol of Hester’s shame. She is an adulteress, a
scarlet woman.
• By the middle of the novel, Hester’s good works in
the community identify her as “Sister of Mercy”
and the “A” now means *”Able”.

5. Characters of Hester Prynne
• Hester Prynne is the protagonist
of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850
novel The Scarlet Letter.
• She is portrayed as a woman
condemned by her Puritan
neighbors.
• The character has been called
“among the first and most
important female protagonists in
American literature”

6. • Although Hester Prynne is beautiful, her beauty
barely compares to her strength of character.
• Even when she is punished for her crime of
adultery and publicly humiliated by being
forced to wear a scarlet A on her chest, Hester
does not break.
• She remains exactly who she is: strong, kind,
proud, but also humble.

7. Strong female characters:
• Her inner strength, her defiance of convention,
her honesty, and her compassion may have
been in her character all along, but the scarlet
letter brings them to our attention.
• She is, in the end, a survivor.
• We first meet the incredibly strong Hester on
the scaffold with Pearl in her arms, beginning
her punishment.

8. Physiognomy: Good Characters
Hester Prynne Physical Traits:
tall and elegant dark, shiny, full hair beautiful gentle feminine features
dignified ,
Textual Evidence:” None so ready as she to give of her little
Substance to every demand of poverty. None so self-devoted as Hester,
when pestilence stalked through the town.
In all seasons of calamity, indeed, whether general or of individuals,
the outcast of society at once found her place”

9. Dynamic character:
• Hester Prynne is a dynamic character due to
the changes she experiences after becoming an
outcast to society.
• Mistress Hibbins is a static character because
she does not change throughout the story. ...
• He is a static character because he does not
change his mind about getting revenge.

10. Feminist charecter:
• Hester is a odd case because she is not the best role
model. ...
• You could argue she is a feminist because of her strong
character, but at the same time,
• she isn’t because what she has done in the book does
not represent the equality of men and women.

11. Ashamed for her sin :
• Hester starts by seeing her act
as a sin that she is sorry for
committing.
• This evil deed, in Hester’s
eyes, causes Pearl to act
sinful, so Hester feels
overwhelming guilt.
• At this point Hester feels that
her actions were evil and were
her fault, therefore she is
sorry for committing adultery.

12. Hester punishment
• Because of the society in which Hester lived, she
deserved to be punished for her sin. However, under her
circumstances, Hester deserved a lesser punishment. ...
Most believed Hester’s husband was dead at sea and
would never return. This fact alone lessens the severity
of Hester’s adulterous act.
• Simply so, what is Hester Prynne’s punishment for
adultery? Hester is forced to stand on a scaffold in town
for three hours with a scarlet letter “A” branded on her
dress. The “A” is a symbol for Hester’s adultery, and the
government has decreed that she must wear this “A” for
the rest of her life.

13. Wearing the Scarlet Letter in Society:
• Hester chooses to live and raise Pearl on the outskirts of town in
the woods because she is ostracized by society, but she does not
totally recluse herself. Though she is not often out in public, she
does occasionally leave her home.
• The fact that Hester allows herself to ever go out in public while
the scarlet letter is permanently on her chest shows her great
strength and courage. Many people would choose to live a life
totally apart from all human contact after such a traumatizing
public humiliation, but Hester’s strength allows her to continue to
live her life.

14. Death of Hester
• Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year
later.
• Hester and Pearl leave Boston, and no one knows what
has happened to them.
• Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing
the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resume
her charitable work.
• When Hester dies, she is buried next to Dimmesdale.

15. Conclusion:
• In Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter the scarlet ‘A initially
symbolizes the protagonist Hester’s adultery,and later o, her
ability to help people despite it.
• The story is focused on the problem of eviland the nature of sin.It
analyzes the human mind and heart through the simple concept of
GUILT Hawthorne analyzes the effects of sin on thefour main
characters.
• The “scarlet letter” of the novel s title refers to a scarletletter
“A” that thenovel s main character is made to wear on her
clothing as punishment adultery crime of adultery.

16. Work citation:
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter : And Related Readings:
And Related Readings. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 1997.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, Nancy Stade, and George Stade. The Scarlet Letter. New
York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1850;
Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/83/. [Date of Printout].