THE SCARLET LETTER

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is centered on the sin and punishment of Hester Prynn, but Hester is a far more complex character than these black and white terms. The women of Boston gossip in the opening chapters of the book about Hester’s crime, suggesting that she be branded or killed instead of having to wear a red A.


In the opening of The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a mystery En Medius Res. We are only shown sketchy details of her life before the events of the book begin. In fact, what we do know of her we know largely through the eyes of others. We know that she married Roger Chillingworth out of duty, not love; we know that she had a s...