Chapter 1

1. Chapter 1 • Our story begins in Puritan Boston, a so-called “utopia” where its founders thought it was most important to establish a prison and a cemetery. Men in “sad-colored garments” and “gray, steeple-crowned hats” as well as women, were waiting outside the wooden prison. Many find strange that on a small plot of land amongst a ton of weeds is a beautiful wild rose-bush said to have sprung from Anne Hutchinson’s walking over that spot before entering prison. Hawthorne’s use of words like “sad-colored garments” and “gray, steeple crowned hats” depicted these Puritan people as religious, serious, and somber. The idea of the Boston colony as being a utopia and Ann Hutchinson causing the rose-bush’s appearance are both examples of allusion. The wild rose-bush symbolizes hope since it was able to flourish among the weeds. The cemetery symbolizes death and the prison represents; moreover, both sin and death are inevitable. • Chapter 2 • The Boston citizens were waiting eagerly for the prison door to open. A group of elderly women were outside the wooden doors were gossiping and say horrendous things about a beautiful, young woman known as Hester Prynne. The prison door opens to reveal Hester Prynne with her three-month-old daughter in her arms. On her gown was a scarlet letter, an “A”, which was elaborately embroidered. Hester Prynne held her head up high as she was ridiculed while she made her way through the crowd and onto the scaffold. Scaffold- place of “confession”; place where sins are recognized by public humiliation. The old women gossiping are hypocrites since they themselves are signing by talking poorly about Hester. Hawthorne uses imagery when he describes Hester as having “dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off sunshine with a gleam, and a face, which besides being beautiful from regularity of feature…” on page 37. • Chapter 3 • While standing on the scaffold Hester notices a man dressed in Indian garbs, who looked aged but was not old, intelligent, and had a slight deformity along his shoulders. She recognizes he is and is overcome with fear. The strange man in the crowd is curious as to why Hester Prynne is standing on the scaffold. He asks a citizen who tells him that Hester must wear the scarlet letter as a symbol for her adultery as well as she must stand on the scaffold for three hours as punishment. John Wilson, a clergyman, as well as the respected and admired Reverend Dimmesdale ask Hester to reveal the name of her paramour. Hester refuses saying that her child will have a “heavenly Father.” In this chapter the scaffold is changed into a pedestal which holds irony since something on a pedestal is admired, opposite of what is happening to Hester. Hawthorne is trying to elevate Hester as though she were better than the others. • Chapter 4 • Hester returns to the prison where she becomes very nervous. A physician known as Roger Chillingworth visits her only to be the strange man from within the crowd. Roger Chillingworth turns out to be Hester’s husband who stayed in Europe to continue his studies. During his visit Roger Chillingworth makes medicine for both Hester and her daughter to drink. Hester is skeptical at first accusing Chillingworth of trying to kill them, but he assures her that he has no reason to take revenge on her since the scarlet letter is doing it for him. Chillingworth blames Hester’s paramour for what has happened to Hester. He asks Hester for the identity of her partner but she refuses to tell him. He tells her that no matter what he will find him and make him pay. Chillingworth forces Hester into keeping his identity a secret since he will not stop until Hester’s hidden partner is his. Chillingworth has this wicked smile and an “evil” in his eyes causing Hester to ask if he like the “Black Man.” Black man- Devil; Simile- Hester can sees the evil within Chillingworth and compares him to the Devil who haunts people’s souls. • Motifs/Themes: Sin- Hester was ridiculed for her sin, while many Puritans hid behind their sin filled masks, Society- Hester was an example to others as to what a sinner has to go through and she was branded as an outcast, Evil- Chillingworth begins his downward spiral into his evil, sinful, and deformed ways. • Treatment of Women- Women in those times were to be pure and virtuous, but Hester was treated as an outcast and was made a mockery of because of her sin. She was the town’s entertainment, or “hot topic.” • Tone- Hawthorne has a sympathetic tone when speaking about Hester especially in the first chapter when he describes her.