Publisher's Synopsis
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The novel is set in a town in Puritan New England. The main character is Hester Prynne, a young woman who has had a child out of wedlock. Hester thinks she is a widow, but her husband, Roger Chillingworth, arrives in New England alive and hides his identity. He finds his wife forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her dress as punishment for her adultery. After Hester refuses to name her lover, Chillingworth becomes obsessed with finding her identity. When she learns that the man in question is Arthur Dimmesdale, a holy young minister who is the leader of those who exhorts her to name the boy's father, Chillingworth proceeds to torment him. Run over by guilt, Dimmesdale grows sicker and sicker. Hester herself reveals herself to be a self-sufficient heroine who never truly regrets committing adultery with the minister; She feels that her act was consecrated by their deep love for each other. Although initially despised, over time her compassion and dignity silence many of her critics.
In the end, Chillingworth is morally degraded for his monomaniac quest for revenge. Dimmesdale is shattered by his own guilt and publicly confesses his adultery before dying in Hester's arms. Only Hester can face the future with courage, as she prepares to start a new life with her daughter, Pearl, in Europe. Years later, Hester returns to New England, where she continues to wear the scarlet letter. After her death, she is buried alongside Dimmesdale, and their joint headstone is inscribed "ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES."
