This story begins in 17th century Boston. Hester Prynne the main character in this story is led out of prison carrying a baby in her arms. The child’s name is Pearl. Hester had a scarlet red letter “A” on her chest. This “A” means “able” or “adulteress”. She is then led to a platform for public shame. While she is up there she sees her long lost husband Roger Chillingworth in the crowd. Chillingworth recognizes her and acts like he doesn’t know Hester; he then learns her crime from a man in the crowd. Hester while waiting for Chillingworth to come to the New World, she committed adultery resulting in her having a baby and the scarlet “A” on her chest. Chillingworth poses as a doctor so that he can get inside the prison to talk to …show more content…
Hester is obviously shocked at this; she then looks over and sees Chillingworth smiling at her. Chillingworth will do just about anything to keep Hester unhappy; he indulges himself in making Hester and Dimmesdale mentally and emotionally suffer for what they have done. After Dimmesdale’s speech he walks over to Hester and Pearl who were standing next to the scaffold of the pillory. Dimmesdale then stretches forth his hand and calls Hester and Pearl to come over to him. Pearl immediately comes to him and hugs at his knees. That instant, Chillingworth throws himself through the crowd and grabs hold of Dimmesdale’s arm. Dimmesdale then says that Chillingworth is too late and that he shall escape Chillingworth’s power over him. Dimmesdale calls Hester to come to him; the crowd was in an uproar at this scene. He then tells the crowd that he stands on the spot where he should have stood several years ago with Hester at the time she was shamed. He tears off his shirt and reveals a scarlet letter on his chest! Dimmesdale then kneels down as he felt death come upon him. He asks Pearl to kiss him, and so she does. The spell was now broken and Dimmesdale dies. Hester and Pearl leave Boston not long after this event. Soon after Chillingworth dies and leaves a large amount of wealth for Pearl; she becomes the richest heiress of her day in the New World. Hester then returns to Boston to live the rest of her days in her old cottage. Hester dies several
What is the significance of the scarlet letter A which is embroidered on Hester’s gown?
In the first interaction between Chillingworth and Hester, Chillingworth is the doctor for both Hester and Pearl. Hester is dubious of Chillingworth's motives for helping them, and with good reason. Chillingworth declares that he is not aiding her out of the goodness of his heart, but rather to make sure that she lives so that he may broadcast her sins throughout the community. "Live, therefore, and bear about thy doom with thee, in the eyes of men and women, - in the eyes /of him whom thou didst call thy husband, - in the eyes of yonder child! And, that thou/ mayest live, take off this draught!" (67) Chillingworth is very angry at Hester, but not because of love for Hester, but rather because Chillingworth feels emasculated by Hester's transgression. As revenge, Chillingworth wishes to strip her of any honor. The reader at this point feels nothing but anger towards Chillingworth at this point. Chillingworth has badgered Hester incessantly in order to ascertain the father of her bastard child. "Speak out the name! That, and thy repentance, may avail to take the scarlet letter off thy breast." (63) Up until this point the reader thinks that Chillingworth is a self-righteous crusader, but when it is finally revealed that Chillingworth is in fact Hester's husband, some sympathy is
He finds out it was Dimmesdale and then set out to torture him. “[Chillingworth] never set him free again until he has done all it’s bidding. He now dug into the poor clergyman’s heart” (Hawthorne 117). Hester tells Chillingworth to stop, but Chillingworth does not. He wants to get revenge on Dimmesdale. Because of this revenge, he loses Hester forever. Chillingworth tortures him in his own best interest. He is selfish. He wants Hester, even though Hester no longer loves him. Even after he has the chance to learn his lesson, Chillingworth still acts in his own interest. He learns that Dimmesdale and Hester are going to leave on a boat, and he books a ticket on the same boat, causing more problems for Hester and Dimmesdale. Chillingworth wants only what was in his own best interest, not what is better for others.
Throughout the novel, it is clear that Hester has deep feelings for Dimmesdale. In the beginning of the novel, she refuses to name him as the father of her child, choosing to endure her punishment and alienation from society alone. She spends the next seven years yearning for him. Chapter five even states that Hester stayed in Boston because, “there dwelt, there trode the feet of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union, that, unrecognized on earth, would bring them together before the bar of final judgment, and make that their marriage-altar, for a join futurity of endless retribution,” (Hawthorne 77). This quote simply states that Hester, while refusing to admit it to herself, chose to stay in New England because Dimmesdale was
At first Hester, agrees to Chillingworth’s terms to keep his real identity a secret. This in return hurt Dimmesdale, her secret lover. She does not stand up to Chillingworth out of fear of the chain effect of damage it would cause. Hester says, “I will keep thy secret, as I have his”, which in essence shows her weakness towards a male. Yet, at the end of the book, she recognizes that she must “do what might be in her power for the rescue of the victim on whom [Chillingworth] had so evidently set his gripe”. She comes to the conclusion that hiding Chillingworth’s secret does not help Dimmesdale like she hopes, but in fact, hurts him further. The fact that she realizes this, though, displays her to be an devoted and loyal person. These qualities display many things a female, main character, in those times, did not have much opportunity to play, especially in the role of which Hester plays it.
After Pearl got married, and Chillingworth was long dead, Hester Prynne returned to Boston to recollect and to repent. The townspeople came to her, some staring in awe, some revering her presence. She had Hester Prynne
Dimmesdale believes that Hester has declared her sins through the scarlet A on her chest and it relieves her burden. Dimmesdales hidden thoughts, however, seem to be the source of his illness. Despite this, he doesn’t tell anyone and doesn’t believe in confessing to an “earthly physician” and believes he should only confess to Christ. Chillingworth gets impatient but after they fight, the two men make up. Later, Dimmesdale falls asleep and Chillingworth goes to his room and lifts his shirt to reveal something that excites him. To me, his secretive nature reveals his not-so-positive intentions and the townspeople rightly suspect him of acting darkly towards the
How does Hester feel upon leaving prison? What does the future have in store for her?
Throughout history, mental illness has been labeled as a defining deformity, that harnesses in its “victims,” into a box, parallel to the familiar “mime in a box” image. In a world where we glorify “normality,” a lack of illness, which by all means is a gift, the beauty of one mind takes away from the beauty of an outlier, even though, ironically people may not even recognize their differences. Hester, at a glance suffers from a literal scarlet letter, but an imprint on her brain may exist as well. Irrational actions, sudden emotional episodes, and destructive thoughts can only prevail for so long following sin; Hester’s persona has branches of self-defeating personality disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. No one of her time, however, will bring the issue to light, Hester will be left known as the mistress, a witch, or “A,” rather than to explore her “complicated” condition. As decades pass, Hester’s state will remain, as the “A,” the mark of the stigma on mental illness today. When left neglected, society rejects the possibility that under a visible coating, mental deformities may lie; those who are divergent, who require affection more, are made subordinate, marginalized with no quest for a cure.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne analyzes Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. In the story, Hester is the main character of the story and was called Mistress Prynne (Hawthorne 70). Dimmesdale, in the story was referred to as Reverend Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 90). Chillingworth was originally named, Roger Prynne but later in the story he changed his name to Roger Chillingworth. In the story, Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale against Chillingworth and in the beginning she got punished and sent to prison and later she got to get out of prison but with the exception of having to wear the letter A on her breast every time she went out in to town.
Hester took residence in a cabin at the edge of town and lived with her young daughter Pearl. Hester became perplexed by the young childs actions, as she watched her
Dimmesdale whips himself to punish himself for his sins, and as his sin grew inside of him and festered there, he became very ill, he started getting very sick, holding his heart even more than usual. Chillingworth one night after Dimmesdale had fallen asleep, sneaks into Dimmesdale’s room, rips open his shirt, and right over his heart, is the Black Man’s mark, the scarlet letter ‘A’. Dimmesdale becomes even more sick as time goes on, Hester and Dimmesdale plan to leave to go to England, but before that happens, Dimmesdale gives his final sermon, which was phenomenal, and as they are leaving the church, Dimmesdale gets onto the scaffold, asks Hester and Pearl to join him “He turned towards the scaffold, and stretched forth his arms. ‘Hester,’ said he, ‘come hither! Come, my little Pearl!’” (Hawthorne 376), as he declares that he is the father and that he loves them. Pearl grants him the kiss he has been wanting/needing from her, and right after, Dimmesdale collapses on the scaffold and dies. Dimmesdale is buried in a tomb and when Hester dies, she is then placed basically beside him, sharing a headstone to mark their love.
After being found guilty of adultery, Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her clothing as a public sign of shame. Her long lost husband, now under a new name to remain unknown, reappears after being presumed lost at sea. With revenge on his mind, a drama explodes around Hester. Over many years, her lover Dimmesdale falls ill and the new town physician Chillingsworth spends many hours by his bedside, only to start believing that Arthur is the father of Pearl, Hester’s out-of-wedlock child. When pleading with Dimmesdale, Hester begs him to leave for Europe so that they can start a new life together. This plan fails when Hester discovers that Chillingsworth is also to be a passenger. Eventually, Dimmesdale dies in Hester’s arms, and losing an opportunity at revenge, Chillingsworth dies shortly after. With a large amount of money left to her, Pearl and her mother relocate to Europe to start a new life (Hawthorne).
For several years, Hester is prohibited from seeing her love in public. She can only meet with him privately. Even wanting to still see him represents true loyalty—after everything Hester has been through to protect Dimmsdale's secret is reason enough to be fed up with him (Swisher 53). Hester's loyalty to Dimmsdale continues until the end; she cradles him in his last dying moments on Earth. (Swisher 53) Hester keeps her loyalty to her husband, Roger Chillingworth, as well. He asks her not to reveal his identity in their first discussion of the novel, and she obliges. For many years, she keeps the secret while Chillingworth does dreadful things to Dimmsdale. Dimmsdale's deteriorating health is part due to the awful arts Chillingworth performs on his so-called “patient.” (Swisher 53) In chapter fifteen, Hester goes to confront Chillingworth about the situation. Hester argues and argues but Chillingworth
The changes of appearance fail to stop there, however, and in the latter portion of the book, Hester is reunited with her true love. Hawthorne writes that "her sex, her youth…richness of beauty, came back" (170) after this reunion, and Hester, once again, returns to her original form.