Report

Scarlet Letter Story Analysis

Present to:
T. Pawinee Ounwattana

Submitted By:
Miss Burassakorn Klueabthong No. 5
Miss Panadda Thamniem No. 17

This report is one part of Literary Reflection (LA2012415)

Semester 1, Year of Education 2023
Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon
 Preface
This report is prepared as a part of Literary Reflection. The objective is to analyze the whole
story of Scarlet Letter to others, which this report is about to explain its literature element, figurative
language and its literary reflection.
The preparation of this report has successfully met its objectives. We sincerely hope that the
content of this report will be useful to the reader or those who are interested as well. If you have
any suggestions or errors. The organizing committee apologizes and will continue to correct and
complete.

Faculty of Liberal Arts organizers

A
 Table of contents
Pages
Preface a
Table of Contents b
Scarlet Letter 1
Story Synopsis 3
Story Analysis 4
Fiction Elements
Characters 4
Settings 5
Point of View 5
Plot 5
Conflict 7
Theme 7
Symbols 9
Mood and Tone 10
Figurative language 11
Literary devices 11
Metaphor 11
Simile 12
Symbolism 13

B
 Pages
Irony 14

Relevant words and information from the story 15

References 18

C
 Table of Illustrations
Pages
The Scarlet Letter, “Title page” 1
“The Scarlet Letter” 2
“Hester Prynne and her daughter Pearl” 6
“Shall we not meet again?” 10

D
 Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthrone

The Scarlet Letter, “Title page”, first edition, 1850

published by Ticknor, Reed & Fields

The Scarlet Letter is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne,
published in 1850. Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649. The
novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not
married and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. As punishment, she must
wear a scarlet letter 'A' (for "adultery"). Containing a number of religious and historic allusions, the
book explores themes of legalism, sin and guilt.

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 “The Scarlet Letter”
Drawn by Hugues Merle (1859) with oil on canvas, Commissioned by William T. Walters (through George A. Lucas
as agent), Baltimore, March 9, 1861

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Story Synopsis
The story begins as Hester Prynne, the novel's protagonist, is led out of a prison carrying an
infant, named Pearl, in her arms. A bright red "A" is embroidered on her chest. A crowd waits
expectantly as Hester is forced to climb up a scaffold to endure public shame for her sin. While on
the scaffold, Hester is terrified to recognize her estranged husband, Chillingworth, in the crowd. He
recognizes her too, and is shocked. Chillingworth pretends not to know Hester, and learns her story
from a man in the crowd: she was married to an English scholar who was supposed to follow her to
Boston but never showed up. After two years she fell into sin, committing the adultery that resulted
in her baby and the scarlet "A" on her breast. Chillingworth predicts the unknown man will be found
out, but when the beloved local Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commands Hester to reveal the man's
name, she refuses and is sent back to her prison cell. Chillingworth poses as a doctor to get inside
the prison to speak with Hester, and there forces her to promise never to reveal that he is her
husband.

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Story Analysis
Fiction Elements
Characters
Hester Prynne – Protagonist who give “A” as adulterer. She gave birth to Pearl. She equals
both her husband and her lover in her intelligence and thoughtfulness.
Pearl – Hester’s illegitimate daughter. Young girl with a moody mischievous spirit with ability
to perceive things others don’t see.
Roger Chillingworth – Hester’s husband in disguise and the antagonist of the story. He
disguised himself as a doctor and stayed in Boston despite his wife’s betrayal and disgrace. His single-
minded pursuit of retribution reveals him to be the most malevolent character in the novel.
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale – Young man who famed as theologian in England and moved
to America. Hester’s lover and Pearl’s father.
Governor Bellingham – elderly gentleman who spending on consulting other fathers in town.
He resembles traditional English aristocrat. Bellingham tends to strictly adhere to the rules, but he is
easily swayed by Dimmesdale’s eloquence.
Mistress Hibbins – widow with Governor Bellingham, his brother. She is commonly known to
be a witch who ventures into the forest at night to ride with the “Black Man.” Her appearances at
public occasions remind the reader of the hypocrisy and hidden evil in Puritan society.
Reverend Mr. John Wilson - Boston’s elder clergyman. He is a stereotypical Puritan father, a
literary version of the stiff, starkly painted portraits of American patriarchs. Unlike Dimmesdale, his
junior colleague, Wilson preaches hellfire and damnation and advocates harsh punishment of sinners.
Narrator - The unnamed narrator works as the surveyor of the Salem Custom-House some
two hundred years after the novel’s events take place. He discovers an old manuscript in the
building’s attic that tells the story of Hester Prynne; when he loses his job, he decides to write a
fictional treatment of the narrative.

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 Settings
The Scarlet Letter is set in Boston in the 1600s, prior to American Independence. At the time,
Boston was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which had been established after the first group
of English settlers arrived in Plymouth in 1620. Boston was founded in 1630, and by the 1640s there
were about 25 000 English settlers in the area.

Point of View
The Point of View in this story is 3rd person omniscient, because he analyzes the characters
and tells the story in a way that shows that he knows more about the characters than they know
about themselves. Yet, he is also a subjective narrator, because he voices his own interpretations and
opinions of things. He is clearly sympathetic to Hester and Dimmesdale.

Plot
Exposition
The story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman,
Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet
letter “A” on her breast. A man in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished
for adultery. Hester’s husband, a scholar much older than she is, sent her ahead to America, but he
never arrived in Boston. The consensus is that he has been lost at sea. While waiting for her husband,
Hester has apparently had an affair, as she has given birth to a child. She will not reveal her lover’s
identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her public shaming, is her punishment for her sin
and her secrecy. On this day Hester is led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers,
but she again refuses to identify her child’s father.
Rising Action
Dimmesdale stands by in silence as Hester suffers for the “sin” he helped to commit, though
his conscience plagues him and affects his health. Hester’s husband, Chillingworth, hides his true
identity and, posing as a doctor to the ailing minister, tests his suspicions that Dimmesdale is the
father of his wife’s child, effectively exacerbating Dimmesdale’s feelings of shame and thus reaping
revenge.

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 Climax
There are at least two points in The Scarlet Letter that could be identified as the book’s
“climax.” The first is in Chapter 12, at the exact center of the book. As Dimmesdale watches a meteor
trace a letter “A” in the sky, he confronts his role in Hester’s sin and realizes that he can no longer
deny his deed and its consequences. The key characters confront one another when Hester and Pearl
join Dimmesdale in an “electric chain” as he holds his vigil on the marketplace scaffold, the location
of Hester’s original public shaming. Chillingworth appears in this scene as well. The other climactic
scene occurs in Chapter 23, at the end of the book. Here, the characters’ secrets are publicly exposed
and their fates sealed. Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth not only acknowledge their secrets to
themselves and to each other; they push these revelations to such extremes that they all must leave
the community in one way or another.

“Hester Prynne and her daughter Pearl”

Falling Action
Depending on one’s interpretation of which scene constitutes the book’s “climax,” the falling
action is either the course of events that follow Chapter 12 or the final reports on Hester’s and Pearl’s
lives after the deaths of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth.

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 Denouement
In the end, Chillingworth dies alone and robbed of his vengeance, but he gives his wealth to
Pearl. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, but Hester returns several years later and lives in the same
cottage she lived in with Pearl. She spends her remaining years caring for the downtrodden in Boston
and, when she dies, she is buried next to Dimmesdale.

Conflict
Her husband having inexplicably failed to join her in Boston following their emigration from
Europe, Hester Prynne engages in an extramarital affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. When she gives birth
to a child, Hester invokes the condemnation of her community—a condemnation they manifest by
forcing her to wear a letter “A” for “adulterer”—as well as the vengeful wrath of her husband, who
has appeared just in time to witness her public shaming.

Theme
Sin, Knowledge, And the Human Condition
The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both
cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge—specifically, in
knowledge of what it means to be human. For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as “her passport
into regions where other women dared not tread,” leading her to “speculate” about her society and
herself more “boldly” than anyone else in New England. As for Dimmesdale, the “burden” of his sin
gives him “sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his heart vibrates
in unison with theirs.” His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy. Hester
and Dimmesdale contemplate their own sinfulness on a daily basis and try to reconcile it with their
lived experiences.

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 The Nature of Evil
The book argues that true evil arises from the close relationship between hate and love. As
the narrator points out in the novel’s concluding chapter, both emotions depend upon “a high degree
of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each render one individual dependent . . . upon another.” Evil is
not found in Hester and Dimmesdale’s lovemaking, nor even in the cruel ignorance of the Puritan
fathers. Evil, in its most poisonous form, is found in the carefully plotted and precisely aimed revenge
of Chillingworth, whose love has been perverted. Perhaps Pearl is not entirely wrong when she thinks
Dimmesdale is the “Black Man,” because her father, too, has perverted his love. Dimmesdale, who
should love Pearl, will not even publicly acknowledge her. His cruel denial of love to his own child
may be seen as further perpetrating evil.
Identity And Society
After Hester is publicly shamed and forced by the people of Boston to wear a badge of
humiliation, her unwillingness to leave the town may seem puzzling. She is not physically imprisoned,
and leaving the Massachusetts Bay Colony would allow her to remove the scarlet letter and resume
a normal life. Surprisingly, Hester reacts with dismay when Chillingworth tells her that the town fathers
are considering letting her remove the letter. Hester’s behavior is premised on her desire to determine
her own identity rather than to allow others to determine it for her. To her, running away or removing
the letter would be an acknowledgment of society’s power over her: she would be admitting that
the letter is a mark of shame and something from which she desires to escape.
Female Independence
Hawthorne explores the theme of female independence by showing how Hester boldly makes
her own decisions and is able to take care of herself. Before the novel even begins, Hester has already
violated social expectations by following her heart and choosing to have sex with a man she is not
married to; she will later justify this decision by explaining to Dimmesdale that “What we did had a
consecration of its own.” Because Hester is cast out of the community, she is liberated from many of
the traditional expectations for a woman to be docile and submissive. She also has practical
responsibilities that force her to be independent: she has to earn a living so that she and her daughter
can survive, and she also has to raise a headstrong child as a single parent.

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 Guilt
Guilt is a major theme in The Scarlet Letter, and appears primarily in the psychology of Arthur
Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale is tormented both by guilt at his sinful act of fathering an illegitimate child,
and then by the guilt of failing to take responsibility for his actions and having to hide his secret. As
he explains, “Had I one friend…to whom… I could daily betake myself and be known as the vilest of
all sinners, methinks my soul might keep itself alive.” The minister’s guilt is also exaggerated by a
sense of hypocrisy, because he is considered by many to be exceptionally holy and righteous: “It is
inconceivable, the agony with which this public veneration tortured him!”
Empathy
Throughout the novel, characters either achieve or fail to achieve feelings of empathy for their
fellow humans. Both Dimmesdale and Hester achieve greater compassion because they have suffered,
and can sympathize with how a good person might still make mistakes. This ability to show empathy
makes Hester and Dimmesdale highly sought after within the community: Dimmesdale gains a great
reputation as a minister, and by the end of the novel Hester has become a kind of wise woman:
“people brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, as one who had herself
gone through a mighty trouble.”

Symbols
Red and Black
Red symbolizes the glow of Hester's passion. Black represents the devil and sin. Chillingworth,
for instance, refers to their shared fate as a "black flower." The inscription on the tombstone Hester
and Dimmesdale share says "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules," which means "On a black
background, the scarlet letter burns."

The Scarlet Letter

The Puritans mean for the scarlet letter to be a symbol of Hester's shame. But the narrator
describes the letter as a "mystic symbol" that means many things. The letter does represent Hester
Prynne's adultery, but as she grows and changes in the novel, the letter's symbolism evolves as well.
For example, it comes to mean "able" when she becomes a successful seamstress, and Dimmesdale

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refers to Hester twice as "angel," giving the letter yet another meaning. In the end, the letter comes
to symbolize Hester's triumph over the very forces that meant to punish her.

Pearl
Pearl is a living symbol, the physical embodiment of Hester and Dimmesdale's sin. In Chapter
19, the narrator even calls Pearl a "living hieroglyphic." Yet Pearl, from her name to her comfort with
nature, is also the purest character in the novel. While the Puritans see her as a demon, the reader
comes to see her as a kind of nature-sprite, cast out by a society that cannot accept her "sinful"
origins.

“Shall we not meet again?”

(Chapter XXIII)

Mood and Tone

Hawthorne sets the mood as dark and dismal, much like that of The Crucible. The early Puritan
theocracy in Boston seems to be drab and lacking of spirit or enthusiasm. The only positives seem to
be any reference to God or in a special case the light of hope that is present through the myth of the
Rose bush.

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Figurative Language
Literary devices
Metaphor
There’re many metaphors represent to various meanings in each chapter. These are examples
and their analyses as following,

"trial and warfare..."

(Chapter VIII / Chapter 8)

Recall from the first chapter how Hawthorne made the point that every new colony
set aside space for a prison and a cemetery. This creates the idea that two of the only constants for
society are criminals and death. Here that point is made again, and seems to take shape as a theme
to look out for later in the story.

"his life was wasting itself away, amid lamp-light, or obstructed day-beams..."
(Chapter IX / Chapter 9)

The theme of contrast between the natural and the unnatural has been represented
by the conflict between the strictly governed religious society and the innate human desires
embodied in Hester’s sin and Pearl’s character. Here, by explaining that Dimmesdale’s life is being
wasted “amid lamp-light” and “obstructed day-beams, Hawthorne presents a metaphor for how
perhaps unnatural “goodness” (like that represented in the religious society) is not equivalent to the
light, the good, of the natural world.

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 "Shame, Despair, Solitude..."
(Chapter XVIII / Chapter 18)

Hester’s metaphorical teachers (“Shame, Despair, Solitude”) all represent the rigid
religious society she lives in. Hawthorne is likely showing that even though strict laws have the ability
to mold people to a government’s liking, they are not always best for the people.

"black shadow, and the untempered light..."

(Chapter VI / Chapter 6)

Hawthorne used the comparison between lightness and darkness. This metaphor,
which stands for good and evil, has been used multiple times already in the story. When an author
continuously uses the same image, we know to pay close attention to find the metaphorical
significance that the author is creating in his or her repetition.

Similes
There’re many similes, comparing one to various things in each chapter. These are examples
and their analyses as following,

"like a snake gliding swiftly over them..."

(Chapter III / Chapter 3)

In the Bible, the devil comes to Adam and Eve in the form of a snake and tempts
them to betray God. This simile could be an allusion to that story, representing the presence of the
devil in the crowd and the evil influence spreading among them.

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 "as if a flake of the sea-foam had taken the shape of a little maid, and were gifted with a soul of
the sea-fire, that flashes beneath the prow in the night-time..."
(Chapter XXII / Chapter 22)

This simile provides beautiful imagery that embodies the wildness and wonder of
Pearl’s character. Hawthorne uses this fantastical image to enhance the feeling that Pearl herself is
magical.

"like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun..."

(Chapter XXIV / Chapter 24)

Hawthorne uses this simile to contrast the flower imagery (symbols for good) found in
the story. When the reasons for Chillingworth to be in Boston are uprooted with Dimmesdale’s death,
he has nothing to hold onto or live for, and so he simply dies as a product of his own hateful revenge.

Symbolism
There’re many symbolisms representing the hidden facts or meanings in each chapter. These
are examples and their analyses as following,

"capital letter A...."

(The Custom-House / Introductory)

Notice how much attention is given to the discovery of this relic. The wealth of
attention given to the discovery of the relic is important because it contains major symbolic
significance in the story the narrator will write.

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 "we could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers, and present it to the reader..."
(Chapter I / Chapter 1)

The rose-bush is a symbol of hope in the story and a metaphor for the natural-born
goodness in humanity. By presenting a metaphorical rose to the reader, Hawthorne tells us that in
the midst of a tale of suffering, we can learn a moral lesson about humanity, allowing something
good to come from a story of suffering.

Irony
There’re many Ironies representing the hidden facts or meanings in each chapter. These are
examples and their analyses as following,

"Puritanic nurture would permit..."

(Chapter VI / Chapter 6)

Hawthorne uses ironic humor here to possibly satirize Puritan societies. The list that
follows includes playing games that represent sinful acts, and a further irony is that while the “good”
Puritan children play games that consist of mocking church and faking murders, Pearl’s humanity is
questioned because of her innate lightness of being.

"his dawning light would be extinguished..."

(Chapter IX / Chapter 9)

This ironic phrase exhibits unnatural qualities. Dawn brings light, but here, because of
the young minister’s failing health, the light is dying at dawn. Because we have been reading with the
prevalent symbol of light as a symbol of good, perhaps this metaphor references more than merely
the mortality of Reverend Dimmesdale.
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 "that I should take in hand to drive Satan out of her with stripes..."
(Chapter IV / Chapter 4)

Master Brackett is saying that if Chillingworth can’t make her “more amenable to just
authority,” he would take it upon himself to whip the devil out her. The idea of beating someone to
remove the devil from them is an ironic practice. Hawthorne uses this theme of irony (what is good
in the eyes of the church versus what seems to be truly good) to make social commentary on religious
society.

Relevant words and information from the story

"Puritanic..."
(The Custom-House /Introductory)

The Puritans were a powerful religious and political force in the 16th century. They emerged
when certain Protestants were not satisfied with Henry VIII’s Church of England. Those that segregated
became known as Puritans because they wanted the church to return to its “purest” state. New
England Puritans were descendants of the pilgrims who traveled to North America, seeking religious
freedom. Puritans believed any deviation from biblical teachings would bring the wrath of God on the
community, so governments made sins punishable offenses.

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 "religion and law were almost identical..."
(Chapter II /Chapter 2)

This is an important consideration for the context of the society where this story will
take place. In the Puritan town of Boston, there are blurred lines between the town, church, and
government. After facing persecution in England, many Puritans moved to North America to try and
establish their own societies where they could practice their religion without the persecution of non-
puritanical governments.

"Sagamores..."
(Chapter IV /Chapter 4)

This term refers to the man who was second in power to the chief of the Algonquian
Native American tribe. This seems to be the “white man,” who caught Hester’s eye, and stood next
to the “Indian” in the previous chapter.

"Black Man..."
(Chapter IV /Chapter 4)

This euphemism for the devil was common amongst Puritans in the 17th century. Many
believed the Black Man, or Satan, lived in the surrounding forests and held secret meetings with
witches at night.

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 "Was existence worth accepting, even to the happiest among them?..."
(Chapter XIII /Chapter 13)

Hawthorne uses this part of the story to draw attention to the inequality between men
and women. He appears to be exploring whether or not life is worth living in the face of this inequality,
even for the happiest of women. Hester increasingly believes that it is not, so we understand that
Hawthorne most likely believes a change should be made to encourage gender equality in society.

"the blackest shade of Puritanism..."

(Chapter XXI /Chapter 21)

Hawthorne uses this paragraph to explain why the Puritans had become so strict. We
learn that Puritans were not always as severe as they are presented in this story. The generation after
the earliest emigrants molded Puritan society into what has been expressed in this story. The strict
nature of Puritan society gives the story a gloomy and unhopeful atmosphere.

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 References

Markus Brenner, Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. (2008). The Project Gutenberg
eBook of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Online).
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25344/25344-h/25344-h.htm
Ticknor, Reed & Fields. (1850). Title page of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, 1st edition. (Online)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_Letter#/media/File:The_Scarlet_Letter_title_page.jpg
North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Photo. Hester Prynne and her daughter Pearl from Hawthorne’s
The Scarlet Letter. Hand-coloured halftone of an illustration (Online). https://wordsworth-
editions.com/the-scarlet-letter/
Walters Art Museum. (1931). The Scarlet Letter. (Online). https://art.thewalters.org/detail/25737/the-scarlet-
letter/

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