The Scarlet Letter

Synopsis

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a fiction work based on the themes of legalism, sin and guilt. To punish the people involving in adultery, the 17th century Puritan rules asks the guilty people to wear The scarlet letter “A” as the symbol of Adultery and affair.

Hester Prynne, who presumes her husband lost at sea. She conceives a daughter named Pearl through an illegal affair whose identity is not revealed by her. She has been ordered to wear Scarlet Letter A and to stand on the scaffold for three hours for public humiliation. She refuses to reveal the name of the father of her child.  

While standing on the scaffold, she could recognize a man in the crowd, who is nothing but her husband whom she thought was no more. Her husband in anger asks the crowd, that the father of the child also should be punished. As Hester does not reveal, he plans to investigate under a new name Roger Chillingworth as a physician. The rest of the story is narrated; the father of Pear confesses and dies in the arms of Hester and after the death of them, they share a simple slate tombstone with a scarlet "A".

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