Scarlet Letter Summaries :: essays research papers

Chapter Summaries   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter 1 This chapter briefly introduces seventeenth-century Boston, where a group of Puritans stand in front of a somber prison or a black flower of civilized society, which seems older that its age. The area around the prison is gray and gloomy. Decay and ugliness are apparent in the author’s descriptions, the only exception is a lovely wild rosebush, whose origin is uncertain, blooming by the prison door.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter 2 The chapter opens as the Puritans are discussing Hester Prynne and her sin. With almost no exceptions, the ridged townswomen are unhappy with the mildness of her punishment. Hester comes out of the prison and walks to the scaffold wearing an elaborately embroidered scarlet letter A on her breast, and carrying a small infant in her arms. As she is standing alone on the scaffold she attempts to escape her shame by dreaming of her past life in England.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter 3 While standing on the platform, Hester recognizes a man in the crowd who is accompanied by an Indian. This man inquires about her and why she is there. This is where we learn that she has committed adultery (the scarlet letter A is for adultery). The man seems very concerned that the other guilty party should also be on the scaffold. Hawthorne hints that the stranger is her lost husband.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter 4 Once she is back in her cell, she is frenzied and a physician is brought in. He is the stranger in the crowd that Hester recognized, and was alarmed by. He gives Hester and her child a sedative, which calms them down and gives them time to talk. We find that he is her husband who was left behind in England. He does not want revenge, he only wants to know who it was that violated his marriage. He then asks that if she will not reveal the name of her lover that she will also keep his identity a secret. Roger Chillingworth, her husband, is determined to make a home in Boston, and find the man who is the father of Hester’s child.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter 5 Hester punishes herself more than anyone else could. Once out of prison she has the choice to move anywhere, and leave her past behind, yet she stays near Boston and lives with the torture of always being an example of sin. She works as a seamstress, saving just enough for herself and her daughter, giving the rest to the poor, who are openly hateful.