The Scarlet Letter

Setting: 17th century (1642) Boston, Massachusetts

Puritan Society

1642-1649

Characters:

  • Hester Prynne - mother of Pearl, adultery, outcast, in love with Dimmesdale

  • Arthur Dimmesdale - Minister, Pearl’s father, dies, eaten alive by guilt, branded himself

  • Roger Chillingworth - Hester’s husband, cold, gets close to Dimmesdale, called “Black Man”

  • Pearl - child of Hester and Dimmesdale, loud, embodies scarlet letter, purity, intelligent

Antagonist: Roger Chillingworth

Protagonist: Hester Prynne

Themes:

  • guilt

  • truth

  • consequences of sin

  • adultery

  • hypocrisy

Conflict:

  • individual v. society

Motifs

  • darkness and light

  • rosebush

  • pearl and name

Symbols

  • physical letter - powerful identity

  • the meteor

  • pearl

  • scaffold - discipline

  • rosebush