The Scarlet Letter
Written by: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Grades: 7-12
Hester Prynne is pregnant and her husband was lost at sea. In the 1600's in Puritan Boston this is a horrible crime. She is forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her chest. When she stands on the scaffold in front of the town she refuses to name her lover and father of her child. Hester looks out over the crowd and sees her husband has returned. He wants to find Hester's lover and make him also pay for his part of the crime. Hester's husband takes a new name, Roger Chillingworth, and poses as a physician. He sees Hester and her daughter, Pearl, in prison. He demands she not tell anyone that he is her husband. When Hester is released she and Pearl live on the outskirts of town and takes in sewing. Roger believes the minister, Dimmesdale, is the lover and father because of his failing health. Hester tries to convince him to leave with her, but he dies before they can leave. Hester and Pearl leave Boston for Europe with the inheritance left by Hester's husband. Hester returns many years later and wears her A again. She becomes a helper to other women and when she dies is buried by her lover Dimmesdale.
A must for Junior High and High School reading. It shows early life in Puritan America. It showed that the laws they made followed the Bible and were strictly enforced.
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