scarlet letter essay thesis

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The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel hawthorne.

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Scarlet Letter: Introduction

The scarlet letter: plot summary, the scarlet letter: detailed summary & analysis, the scarlet letter: themes, the scarlet letter: quotes, the scarlet letter: characters, the scarlet letter: symbols, the scarlet letter: literary devices, the scarlet letter: quizzes, the scarlet letter: theme wheel, brief biography of nathaniel hawthorne.

Historical Context of The Scarlet Letter

Other books related to the scarlet letter.

• Full Title: The Scarlet Letter
• When Written: 1848-1850
• Where Written: Salem, Massachusetts
• When Published: 1850
• Literary Period: Transcendentalism
• Genre: Novel
• Setting: Boston, Massachusetts in the 1640s
• Climax: Dimmesdale's confession and death
• Antagonist: Roger Chillingworth; the Puritans
• Point of View: Third person omniscient

Extra Credit for The Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne and the Salem Witch Trials: Nathaniel Hawthorne was a direct descendent of John Hathorne, (1641-1717), a Puritan justice of the peace. Justice Hathorne is best known for his role as the lead judge in the Salem Witch Trials, in which he sentenced numerous innocent people to death for allegedly practicing witchcraft. Nathaniel added a "w" to his name to distance himself from his infamous ancestor.

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The Scarlet Letter Thesis Statements and Essay Topics

Below you will find four outstanding thesis statements / paper topics for “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne that can be used as essay starters. All four incorporate at least one of the themes found in “The Scarlet Letter” and are broad enough so that it will be easy to find textual support, yet narrow enough to provide a focused clear thesis statement. These thesis statements offer a short summary of “The Scarlet Letter” in terms of different elements that could be important in an essay. You are, of course, free to add your own analysis and understanding of the plot or themes to them. Using the essay topics below in conjunction with the list of important  quotes from “The Scarlet Letter”  on our quotes page, you should have no trouble connecting with the text and writing an excellent essay.

Topic #1: Christian Values in the Scarlet Letter

Hester Prynne is scorned by almost everyone in the town when she is found to be pregnant by a man who is not her husband. She bravely bears her punishment and continues to live there. The citizens of the town are very harsh in both their judgment and treatment of her. They want to take Pearl away from her, but are waylaid by Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Because his identity as Hester’s lover is unknown, he is still considered to be a respectable member of the town. He is able to sway the stricter Reverend John Wilson. Yet if Reverend Wilson knew of Reverend Dimmesdale’s sin, he would react differently. Drawing on examples from the book, contrast the two reverend’s ‘Christian values’ set forth by the two reverends contrast.

Topic #2: The Role of the Men

In  Scarlet Letter , the minister is the unacknowledged father of Hester’s child. Hester allows herself to be shunned and punished by the townspeople, but never gives up his name. Hester bears the weight of their sins on the outside because she carries and gives birth to Pearl. The minister brands himself with the letter A on his chest, but does not come forward until several years later. Meanwhile, it eats at him over the years, eventually leading to his early death. In addition, Roger Chillingworth is Hester’s husband who shows up after the adultery has been committed. He is much older than Hester and is going by a different name. He only reveals his true identity to her, then seeks to bring about what destruction he can.  Explore the differences between the roles of husband and lover. Hester knows the ‘true’ identity of each man, yet she keeps it to herself for much of the book. How are Dimmesdale and Chillingworth different? How are the two men alike?

Thesis Statement #3: Symbolism

The Letter “A” that is pinned to Hester Prynne originally stands for adultery, but as Hester becomes more involved in the community, much of the town forgets Hester’s original crimes and claims that it stands for angel instead.  Even though Hester has improved her image with the town, she does not take off the letter until the near end of the novel, and never asks for forgiveness and an end to her ordeal.  The letter A has different connotations for different characters, and evolves through the novel.  Discuss how symbolism plays a role not only in a novel, but in life itself.

Topic #4: The Character of Pearl

Pearl is the person caught in the middle of her parents’ sins. She is shunned and mistreated because of what her mother did. She is also very perceptive of the relationship between Hester and Arthur. She spends her first few years enduring the treatment she receives from the townspeople. She struggles with her parents’ relationship. In the end, Hester takes Pearl to Europe. Pearl ends up marrying well and inheriting wealth upon Roger Chillingworth’s death. Examine how her character is shaped by her first few years—the maturity and understanding that she has of how the world works. Do the move to Europe and the inheritance from Roger Chillingworth somehow make up for her difficult childhood?

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The Scarlet Letter. New Critical Essays

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Table Of Contents

• About the author(s)/editor(s)
• About the book
• This eBook can be cited
• The children of Pearl: The Scarlet Letter in the criticism and fiction of Henry James (Joseph Kuhn)
• Resettlement, mobility and modernity in The Scarlet Letter (Marek Paryż)
• From the Spanish Main to the Book of Revelation; or, Another View of Hester (Janusz Semrau)
• “The Custom-House” as a Biedermeier text (Paweł Stachura)
• The artist as adulterer in The Scarlet Letter (Jørgen Veisland)
• Notes on contributors
• Series index

The letter is alive and well. (Coale 2011: 19)

Anecdotally, The Scarlet Letter (1850) saw the light of day almost immediately upon completion only because its existence in the author’s private escritoire at 14 Mall Street in Salem was first intuited and then insistently assumed by a keen junior partner of a Boston publisher. However wary Hawthorne may have been to relinquish the original manuscript, soon after it appeared in print he would spare but a single leaf from the flames, the title page with the table of contents on the reverse. Alluding to the cumbersome logistics of an unplanned and in the end rushed publication – specifically to the distance between Salem and Boston – the writer quipped that his tightly contained narrative became gracelessly at least fourteen miles long in the process. Uncertain whether his ripeness and fullness of time as a novelist had already come, he could not be sure whether The Scarlet Letter was any good at all to begin with: “I don’t make any such calculation”, he wrote unenthusiastically to a friend (Nathaniel Hawthorne quoted in James [1879: 38]). Indeed, contrary to the later persistent and still current historiographic legend, the book did not become exactly a proverbial overnight success. It was much rather a succès d’estime . It established the author as a full-fledged professional man of letters, but it sold in his lifetime according to various sources just around ten thousand copies, with total royalties amounting to no more than just over a thousand dollars. 1

Given the benefit of hindsight, what is especially striking about the novel’s stretch and range today is not only its array and elasticity of polysemic meanings – and these extend from the historiographic to the theoretical to the philosophical as well as from the allegorical to the ambivalent to the aporetic – but also its ongoing poignant topicality, i.e., its (a)temporal reach, the idealized Poundian condition of news that stays news. The Scarlet Letter is a rare case of a text that has remained in print, cultural circulation, and public awareness for over a century and a half now. It ranks among the top best remembered, most widely discussed, most closely studied, and most profoundly influential American works of fiction ever written. By common consent, it is one of a few select tales that continually ← 7 | 8 → help define as well as refine not only American literature but also American culture at large. In the words of two contemporary commentators of rather different ideological persuasions, Hawthorne’s work is appreciable as “[A] foundation epic of American literacy” (Crain 2000: 209) and “[A] national master text” (Buell 2014: 90). As Paul Auster (quoted in Coale 2011: 16) has pithily identified the standing of The Scarlet Letter : “This is where American literature begins”. As far as structural properties and aesthetic qualities go, the novel in its clarity of conception, exquisiteness of execution and lightness of expression satisfies the definition of a literary tour de force as an inimitable sort of work that both cannot and need not be written again. It is perfectly safe to assume that for all kinds of, more or less, nuanced reasons The Scarlet Letter will continue to be viewed, and actually read, as an indispensable and irreplaceable American classic.

In accordance, as it were, with the well-known Romantic dictum that notwithstanding classics each age must need write its own books, The Scarlet Letter. New Critical Essays finds itself emulating in scope and length Michael Colacurcio’s anthology of 1985 New Essays on the Scarlet Letter , as well as supplementing and opening up a dialogue with that book. In its own right, the present publication may be seen as (un)intentional or serendipitous testimony to Oscar Wilde’s claim that the essence of true art is the capacity to make one pause, look at and ponder over a thing “a second time” (Wilde 2007 : 41). Also, the essays collected here validate Nina Baym’s recognition of The Scarlet Letter as a unique kind of tale and a unique kind of narrative that we are not only likely to approach and enter in our own individual way but we are very likely to approach and enter “in different ways at different points in our lives” (Baym 1986: xxix). This kind of second time and these kinds of different ways are demonstrated here by Joseph Kuhn (Poznań), Marek Paryż (Warsaw), Janusz Semrau (Warsaw), Paweł Stachura (Poznań), and Jørgen Veisland (Gdańsk).

In “The children of Pearl: The Scarlet Letter in the criticism and fiction of Henry James”, Joseph Kuhn focuses at first on the study Hawthorne of 1879 to show how the author was keen to present himself as the American inheritor of the French realists. Although this made James portray Hawthorne as a Salem provincial and a somewhat vague romancer The Scarlet Letter had quite clearly a formative influence on some of his own later fiction, especially through the character of Pearl. Kuhn argues that James elaborates on the Hawthornian figure of the child as a paradoxical transmitter of sin and a new-born anima. According to Kuhn, James takes his discourse ultimately in the direction of the modern Blanchotian themes of the death of the infans and the nekyia or return to the dead. While Hawthorne finds a conservative principle redux for the New World in the child, with James it ← 8 | 9 → turns into an intimation of disaster in the British imperial fabric of late Victorian culture.

In “Resettlement, mobility and modernity in The Scarlet Letter ”, Marek Paryż pays special attention to how the novel sketches the difficult and awkward emergence of modernizing impulses in Puritan New England. First of all, he points out that the story gets under way with a double movement and a double resettlement, semi-independently that of Roger Chillingworth and that of Hester Prynne. Paryż argues that the two central characters embody two tendencies and challenges Hawthorne’s 19 th -century readers could relate to, namely, the professionalization of social life and the emancipation of women. Even if Roger and Hester appear to respect the rules of the social system in which they find themselves embedded, they develop personal systems of values at odds with the official one. In contradistinction, the third central character, Arthur Dimmesdale, comes across as a figure of immobility and indecision, which is a subplot that ends up perpetuating the mid-17 th -century Puritan status quo.

In “From the Spanish Main to the Book of Revelation; or, Another View of Hester”, Janusz Semrau approaches Hawthorne’s text as a kind of post-Reformation morality play. The essay takes its initial cue from the hitherto critically neglected brief performative appearance of Spanish sailors, comparable in their general plot function to that of the troupe of travelling actors in Hamlet . Fundamentally, Semrau recognizes Hawthorne as an unchurched Calvinist and promotes a quasi-Calvinist reading into the Book of Revelation as a re-interpretive tool to The Scarlet Letter . The idea is to map out and explore Hester Prynne’s allegorical capacity as a Babylonian meretrix Augusta and throw thereby a new light on the immediate story as well as on the much-discussed ending of the book, where there can be detected a graphic apocalyptic eschaton rather than a proud or sentimental escutcheon.

In “The Custom-House as a Biedermeier text”, Paweł Stachura reviews some of the most representative readings of Hawthorne’s introductory sketch and proposes a radically new one. He structures his interpretation as an original comparative analysis of “The Custom-House” (along with The Scarlet Letter as a whole) and Adalbert Stifter’s programmatic introduction to his Bunte Steine [Colorful Stones] of 1853. Adalbert Stifter was an Austrian novelist and a short story writer who was one of the most energetic and dedicated advocates of the 19 th -century Biedermeier aesthetics. This middle-class cultural phenomenon in German-speaking countries is best remembered for its use of plenitude, tropes of collection, moralizing stance, and its generally conservative ideology. The ultimate objective of Stachura’s ← 9 | 10 → reading of Hawthorne is to show the applicability of the Biedermeier aesthetics to the study of American literature at large.

In “The artist as adulterer”, Jørgen Veisland highlights at first the letter on Hester Prynne’s dress. He sees the letter A as writing and knowledge, repressed in the author’s mind and manifesting itself as a renewal of the imaginative and creative potential as such. According to Veisland, it becomes evident that Hester herself serves as a mediator for the elusive heterogeneous object of the author’s desire, one that contains both artistic and erotic impulses. With Pearl as embodiment of the work of Art, Hawthorne’s project becomes a quest for the excavation of knowledge, the liberation of womanhood, and the transformation of the letter into an episteme that ends up signifying the integration of nature, being, and artwork. In contradistinction, Veisland argues that Roger Chillingworth represents the futility of the “chill” intellect, while Arthur Dimmesdale personifies the obfuscations of the “dim” soul.

This book is dedicated to the continued memory of Andrzej Kopcewicz (1934–2007), the first professor ordinarius of American literature in the history of English studies in Poland, on the tenth anniversary of his death.

Janusz Semrau

October 9, 2017

Biographical notes

Janusz Semrau (Volume editor)

Janusz Semrau is Associate Professor of American literature at the University of Social Sciences (SAN) in Warsaw. He has authored several books and numerous papers on 19th- and 20th-century American literature.

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Puritanism in “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne Research Paper

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Introduction

Works cited.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a compelling examination of the subject of Puritanism in early colonial America. The work highlights the oppression, hypocrisy, struggle, and fatalism that defined the Puritan way of life via the experiences of its protagonists. This essay will examine how Hawthorne utilizes his characters and their experiences to challenge the reader to ponder the value of personal freedom and resistance in the face of repressive social conventions. This paper analyzes the literary tools used by Hawthorne in writing the novel, with a focus on how they contribute to the theme of Puritanism. The paper identifies setting, characterization, and symbolism as the three literary tools that most influence the novel’s theme of Puritanism.

The novel’s setting is essential to the development of the Puritanism topic. In the seventeenth century, the story is set in the Puritan colony of Boston. Everyone is expected to uphold the rigorous religious and moral guidelines of Puritanism, which are embedded in the community’s culture (Hawthorne 32). The setting of the narrative presents a repressive and harsh atmosphere in which individual freedom is denied for the sake of religious obedience. Under such conditions, any cases of non-conformity are considered severe crimes that deserve immediate punishment to protect public order. The community’s rigid ordinances, which control everything from clothing codes to behavior, replicate the strict restrictions of Puritanism.

The major characters’ personalities greatly add to the Puritanism theme of the book. Hester Prynne, the main character, represents individual disobedience and resistance because she rejects the strict teachings of Puritanism. Hester’s decision to engage in adultery and have an unmarried kid is a clear example of her defiance (Rivett and Engen 688). She accepts her sentence and resigns herself to a life of loneliness and social isolation. She is constantly reminded of her violation by her punishment, but she does not give in and refuses to follow the strict rules of Puritanism (Anastasova 70). Her persona adds to the issue of Puritanism by illustrating how stringent norms and individual freedom can collide.

All Puritans strongly believed that all individuals were born with original sin. In other words, they were sure that every person was subject to misbehavior, which denoted that people should have allocated much time and effort to withstand their natural inclinations. The widespread suggestion was that individuals needed supervision, control, or punishment to refrain from unlawful activities. The element of original sin is effectively incorporated into the novel to show that it has characteristic features of Puritanism (Zhang 158). In particular, this discussion refers to the fact that Hester’s adultery plays a crucial or even binding role in the literary work. If she had not engaged in this misbehavior, she would not have needed to bear the “A” letter and suffer from public reprehension. This discussion demonstrates that the author successfully incorporated the concept of original sin into the novel because this idea was widespread among Puritans.

Another literary device Hawthorne employed to highlight the idea of Puritanism in the book was symbolism. The red “A” that Hester is made to wear on her chest serves as a potent reminder of the Puritan community’s moral and religious deception (Hawthorne 123). The letter “A” stands for adultery, which is prohibited by rigid moral and religious standards. Hester is constantly reminded of her transgression and publicly shamed with the “A” symbol. The letter additionally stands for the community’s hypocrisy because the residents of the town, who take great pleasure in upholding higher moral standards, are quick to scorn and denounce Hester for her violation, exposing their own hypocrisy in the process (Rivett and Engen 699). By showing how the stringent moral and religious standards of Puritanism can result in hypocrisy and the restriction of human freedom, The Scarlet Letter emblem relates to the concept of Puritanism.

Another example can be found in the account of Hester’s metamorphosis as she lives with the scarlet letter and becomes more alienated from society. In this case, the scarlet letter stands in for both Hester’s transgression and consequent punishment (Hawthorne). Furthermore, the given symbol shows her final resistance to and defiance of the rigid moral and religious precepts of Puritanism (Hawthorne). She is able to understand the drawbacks of the Puritan emphasis on guilt and shame thanks to her contacts with Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 36). That is why she decides to pursue personal freedom and happiness despite the community’s disapproval.

One should additionally highlight that the image of the church contributed to the presence of Puritanism ideas in the novel. According to this school of thought, religious leaders were significant in society. These individuals were responsible for developing the practices and beliefs that were prevalent in society. That is why Puritans provided the church with an important meaning, and this feature was present in The Scarlet Letter. On the one hand, the church actively advocated for the spread of the doctrine of pre-determined fate. Puritans believed that God already decided who would be saved or damned. Thus, the church was depicted as the rigid and unforgiving institution in the novel, which contributed to the spread of fear and anxiety (Hawthorne). On the other hand, the church is described as a social control body that can implement punishments in case of disobedience. Religious authorities made it necessary for Hester to wear the “A” symbol and suffer from public shaming (Hawthorne 16). This information clearly explains why and how the church was an element of Puritanism.

Another important Puritanism-related idea that is covered in the book is the idea of predestination. Those who hold this idea believe that God has already decided who will be saved and who will be damned, which causes the characters to feel hopeless. The character of Hester, who accepts her punishment and steps down to a life of social isolation and loneliness, exemplifies this fatalism (Hawthorne). The notion that God has already decided one’s destiny, including salvation or damnation, makes the protagonists feel dismal and dejected. This fatalistic outlook is seen in Hester’s acceptance of her punishment and her readiness to carry the weight of guilt and humiliation. As a result of his faith in predestination, Arthur Dimmesdale, the town’s minister, and Hester’s covert lover, suffers from remorse and self-doubt. Roger Chillingworth is another example of predestination because he believed that his life’s purpose was to seek revenge (Hawthorne 107). Hawthorne exposes the flaws in Puritanism’s fatalistic thinking system through the depiction of these characters, encouraging readers to think about the importance of individual responsibility and agency in determining one’s fate.

The narrative also emphasizes the Puritan town’s unpleasant and confining atmosphere. The rigid religious and moral rules of Puritanism produce an atmosphere of dread and repression, where individual freedom is denied in the name of religious compliance (Richardson 103). Hester is a representation of personal disobedience and resistance because she defies these rigid standards. The disobedience and originality of Hester, however, stand in stark contrast to the conformist, repressive, and hypocritical Puritan culture that condemns her, which becomes obvious as the novel progresses (Hill 245). Hawthorne encourages readers to consider whether the strict social and religious standards of Puritanism serve to support or stifle personal growth and progress by challenging the Puritan notion that obedience and conformity are the only legitimate routes to redemption and salvation. This is done through the character of Hester.

In conclusion, the Puritanism topic in The Scarlet Letter is a deep and multifaceted investigation of the tension between personal responsibility and divine determinism, as well as between optimism and fatalism and societal conformity. Hawthorne encourages the reader to consider the human condition, the complexity of religious and moral belief systems, and the precarious balance between individualism and communal values through his skillful use of character development, symbolism, and allegory. The Scarlet Letter is still a powerful and enduring piece of literature that enthralls and motivates readers today as a result. The theme of Puritanism is greatly influenced by the literary devices utilized by Hawthorne in composing the book, such as setting, characters, and symbolism. In order to uphold religious obedience, individual freedom is suppressed in the novel’s repressive and regimented setting. The portrayal of the main character, Hester Prynne, shows how individual freedom can clash with Puritanism’s strict moral precepts. Last but not least, the scarlet letter “A” symbolizes the Puritan community’s moral and theological deception.

Anastasova, Maria. “Puritan Projections in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s” The Scarlet Letter” and Stephen King’s” Carrie”.” English Studies at NBU, vol. 7, no. 1, 2021, pp. 69-86.

Hill, Christopher. Society and Puritanism in Pre-Revolutionary England . Verso Books, 2018.

Hawthorne, N. (1850). The Scarlet Letter . Ticknor, Reed, and Fields.

Richardson, Roger C. “Puritanism in North-West England: A Regional Study of the Diocese of Chester to 1642.” Puritanism in North-West England . Manchester University Press, 2022.

Rivett, Sarah, and Abram Van Engen. “Postexceptionalist Puritanism.” American Literature, vol. 90, no. 4, 2018, pp. 675-692.

Zhang, Lifeng. “Analysis of the Narrative Strategies in The Scarlet Letter.” International Journal of Education and Humanities , vol. 6, no. 2, 2023, pp. 156-158.

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IvyPanda. (2024, February 28). Puritanism in “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. https://ivypanda.com/essays/puritanism-in-the-scarlet-letter-by-nathaniel-hawthorne/

"Puritanism in “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne." IvyPanda , 28 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/puritanism-in-the-scarlet-letter-by-nathaniel-hawthorne/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Puritanism in “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne'. 28 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Puritanism in “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne." February 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/puritanism-in-the-scarlet-letter-by-nathaniel-hawthorne/.

1. IvyPanda . "Puritanism in “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne." February 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/puritanism-in-the-scarlet-letter-by-nathaniel-hawthorne/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Puritanism in “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne." February 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/puritanism-in-the-scarlet-letter-by-nathaniel-hawthorne/.

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The Scarlet Letter

By nathaniel hawthorne, the scarlet letter essay questions.

Is Hester truly penitent for her crime?

Answer: Though Hester regrets the effect her crime has had on her child and on her position in society, she sees Chillingworth's betrayal of Dimmesdale as an even greater crime. Ultimately, Hester learns to forgive herself for her sins while Dimmesdale does not.

Why does Dimmesdale intervene on Pearl's behalf when Governor Bellingham orders her removed from Hester's care?

Answer: There are two possibilities: either he fears Hester revealing his name or he truly believes that Hester deserves to care for her daughter, since he is emotionally connected to Pearl as her father and wants Hester to raise her. Ultimately, we believe that it is guilt which motivates him most, since he comes to Hester's defense only after she looks at him with imploring eyes.

What is the difference between how adultery is viewed now and how it was viewed by Puritan society? In other words, where does the blame lie?

Answer: In modern society, adultery is seen as a breach of contract between two people and therefore a private matter. In Puritan society, adultery was seen as a breach of contract between two people and the community in which they lived.

How is the Scarlet Letter embodied by Pearl?

Answer: Pearl, in her wild, unrepressed passion, represents the adulterous passion of her parents, as does the scarlet letter. In her society, she is completely out of place, a child of illicit passion and a constant reminder, like the scarlet letter, of that passion.

Why does Dimmesdale keep putting his hand over his heart?

Answer: Pearl asks this question repeatedly of her mother, but Hester will not answer her. Over time, we understand that Dimmesdale has literally and figuratively inscribed his own scarlet letter into the flesh above his heart so that he can commune with Hester's guilt, shame, and public excommunication.

Do people in the community believe Hester's punishment for adultery is too light or too strict?

Answer: For the most part, they believe it is too lenient, and some advocate branding her with a hot iron or death, the sentence associated with the crime of adultery both in the New England statutes of the time and in the Bible. As time progresses, however, they loosen slightly in their attitudes, though not as much as Hester would expect. Those who acknowledge their own sinfulness are somewhat less quick to judge Hester and can see the case for a less strict punishment by the community.

What are the purposes of the opening Custom-House essay?

Answer: The Custom-House introduction does more than increase the length of the novel, which Hawthorne thought was too short. It also adds a frame story and a romantic sense of truth or non-fiction to the tale. It introduces themes and imagery that will appear later in the novel. And it adds weight to the story by suggesting that the actual fabric of the scarlet letter continues to hold power.

Who is more racked by guilt, Hester or Dimmesdale?

Answer: Dimmesdale has sinned according to his own system of beliefs, since as the town minister he has violated the values he has preached against for decades. He takes his guilt to heart and suffers mightily. Hester, meanwhile, has come to terms with her sin over time.

What do Dimmesdale and Chillingworth share, other than Hester herself?

Answer: Both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth conceal their relationships to the adulterous act, leaving Hester as the only person to take public responsibility for the affair. They continue to maintain prominent roles in society. Both men are ultimately destroyed by this secrecy as they become entangled in a parasitic relationship.

Does Chillingworth ever forgive Hester?

Answer: Chillingworth seems forgiving of Hester at the outset, and he seems to transfer his rage onto Dimmesdale, whom he pursues relentlessly. Indeed, he seems to understand that he shouldn't have married a woman who would never love him, but Dimmesdale must be punished for allowing Hester to indulge her passion. His sinister acts toward the end of the novel are ameliorated somewhat by his choice to leave his estate to Pearl.

The Scarlet Letter Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Scarlet Letter is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Scarlet Letter Quotes Please

Her breast, with its badge of shame , was but the softer pillow for the head that needed one. ch 13

Why does Dimmesdale decide to flee with Hester?

Dimmesdale looks beyong his place in the community and embraces his role as a father. He wants his family, so he decides to leave.

who is the elder clergyman who speaks to hester

The elder minister is John Wilson.

Study Guide for The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter study guide contains a biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Scarlet Letter
• The Scarlet Letter Summary
• The Scarlet Letter Video
• Character List

Essays for The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

• The Little Human A Incarnate
• Perception Blanketed by Passion
• Original Sin
• Hawthorne's "Witch-Baby" in The Scarlet Letter
• Hester's Role as Both the Sinner and Saint

Lesson Plan for The Scarlet Letter

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Scarlet Letter
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Scarlet Letter Bibliography

E-Text of The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter e-text contains the full text of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

• INTRODUCTORY. THE CUSTOM-HOUSE
• CHAPTER I. THE PRISON-DOOR
• CHAPTER II. THE MARKET-PLACE
• CHAPTER III. THE RECOGNITION
• CHAPTER IV. THE INTERVIEW

Wikipedia Entries for The Scarlet Letter

• Introduction