the scarlet letter essay conclusion

The Scarlet Letter

By nathaniel hawthorne, chapter 24: “conclusion”.

• Year Published: 1850
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States of America
• Source: Hawthorne, N. (1850). The Scarlet Letter. Boston, MA: Ticknor and Fields.
• Flesch–Kincaid Level: 11.0
• Word Count: 2,209
• Genre: Tragedy
• Keywords: 19th century literature, american literature, nathaniel hawthorne
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• Passage PDF
• Student Activity

Hawthorne, N. (1850). Chapter 24: “Conclusion”. The Scarlet Letter (Lit2Go Edition). Retrieved April 08, 2024, from https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/127/the-scarlet-letter/2291/chapter-24-conclusion/

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Chapter 24: “Conclusion”." The Scarlet Letter . Lit2Go Edition. 1850. Web. https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/127/the-scarlet-letter/2291/chapter-24-conclusion/ >. April 08, 2024.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Chapter 24: “Conclusion”," The Scarlet Letter , Lit2Go Edition, (1850), accessed April 08, 2024, https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/127/the-scarlet-letter/2291/chapter-24-conclusion/ .

After many days, when time sufficed for the people to arrange their thoughts in reference to the foregoing scene, there was more than one account of what had been witnessed on the scaffold.

Most of the spectators testified to having seen, on the breast of the unhappy minister, a SCARLET LETTER—the very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynne—imprinted in the flesh. As regarded its origin there were various explanations, all of which must necessarily have been conjectural. Some affirmed that the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had begun a course of penance—which he afterwards, in so many futile methods, followed out—by inflicting a hideous torture on himself. Others contended that the stigma had not been produced until a long time subsequent, when old Roger Chillingworth, being a potent necromancer, had caused it to appear, through the agency of magic and poisonous drugs. Others, again and those best able to appreciate the minister’s peculiar sensibility, and the wonderful operation of his spirit upon the body—whispered their belief, that the awful symbol was the effect of the ever–active tooth of remorse, gnawing from the inmost heart outwardly, and at last manifesting Heaven’s dreadful judgment by the visible presence of the letter. The reader may choose among these theories. We have thrown all the light we could acquire upon the portent, and would gladly, now that it has done its office, erase its deep print out of our own brain, where long meditation has fixed it in very undesirable distinctness.

It is singular, nevertheless, that certain persons, who were spectators of the whole scene, and professed never once to have removed their eyes from the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, denied that there was any mark whatever on his breast, more than on a new–born infant’s. Neither, by their report, had his dying words acknowledged, nor even remotely implied, any—the slightest—connexion on his part, with the guilt for which Hester Prynne had so long worn the scarlet letter. According to these highly–respectable witnesses, the minister, conscious that he was dying—conscious, also, that the reverence of the multitude placed him already among saints and angels—had desired, by yielding up his breath in the arms of that fallen woman, to express to the world how utterly nugatory is the choicest of man’s own righteousness. After exhausting life in his efforts for mankind’s spiritual good, he had made the manner of his death a parable, in order to impress on his admirers the mighty and mournful lesson, that, in the view of Infinite Purity, we are sinners all alike. It was to teach them, that the holiest amongst us has but attained so far above his fellows as to discern more clearly the Mercy which looks down, and repudiate more utterly the phantom of human merit, which would look aspiringly upward. Without disputing a truth so momentous, we must be allowed to consider this version of Mr. Dimmesdale’s story as only an instance of that stubborn fidelity with which a man’s friends—and especially a clergyman’s—will sometimes uphold his character, when proofs, clear as the mid–day sunshine on the scarlet letter, establish him a false and sin–stained creature of the dust.

The authority which we have chiefly followed—a manuscript of old date, drawn up from the verbal testimony of individuals, some of whom had known Hester Prynne, while others had heard the tale from contemporary witnesses fully confirms the view taken in the foregoing pages. Among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister’s miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence:—“Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”

Nothing was more remarkable than the change which took place, almost immediately after Mr. Dimmesdale’s death, in the appearance and demeanour of the old man known as Roger Chillingworth. All his strength and energy—all his vital and intellectual force—seemed at once to desert him, insomuch that he positively withered up, shrivelled away and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun. This unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise revenge; and when, by its completest triumph consummation that evil principle was left with no further material to support it—when, in short, there was no more Devil’s work on earth for him to do, it only remained for the unhumanised mortal to betake himself whither his master would find him tasks enough, and pay him his wages duly. But, to all these shadowy beings, so long our near acquaintances—as well Roger Chillingworth as his companions we would fain be merciful. It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in its utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart–knowledge; each renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual fife upon another: each leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate hater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his subject. Philosophically considered, therefore, the two passions seem essentially the same, except that one happens to be seen in a celestial radiance, and the other in a dusky and lurid glow. In the spiritual world, the old physician and the minister—mutual victims as they have been—may, unawares, have found their earthly stock of hatred and antipathy transmuted into golden love.

Leaving this discussion apart, we have a matter of business to communicate to the reader. At old Roger Chillingworth’s decease, (which took place within the year), and by his last will and testament, of which Governor Bellingham and the Reverend Mr. Wilson were executors, he bequeathed a very considerable amount of property, both here and in England to little Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne.

So Pearl—the elf child—the demon offspring, as some people up to that epoch persisted in considering her—became the richest heiress of her day in the New World. Not improbably this circumstance wrought a very material change in the public estimation; and had the mother and child remained here, little Pearl at a marriageable period of life might have mingled her wild blood with the lineage of the devoutest Puritan among them all. But, in no long time after the physician’s death, the wearer of the scarlet letter disappeared, and Pearl along with her. For many years, though a vague report would now and then find its way across the sea—like a shapeless piece of driftwood tossed ashore with the initials of a name upon it—yet no tidings of them unquestionably authentic were received. The story of the scarlet letter grew into a legend. Its spell, however, was still potent, and kept the scaffold awful where the poor minister had died, and likewise the cottage by the sea–shore where Hester Prynne had dwelt. Near this latter spot, one afternoon some children were at play, when they beheld a tall woman in a gray robe approach the cottage–door. In all those years it had never once been opened; but either she unlocked it or the decaying wood and iron yielded to her hand, or she glided shadow–like through these impediments—and, at all events, went in.

On the threshold she paused—turned partly round—for perchance the idea of entering alone and all so changed, the home of so intense a former life, was more dreary and desolate than even she could bear. But her hesitation was only for an instant, though long enough to display a scarlet letter on her breast.

And Hester Prynne had returned, and taken up her long–forsaken shame! But where was little Pearl? If still alive she must now have been in the flush and bloom of early womanhood. None knew—nor ever learned with the fulness of perfect certainty—whether the elf–child had gone thus untimely to a maiden grave; or whether her wild, rich nature had been softened and subdued and made capable of a woman’s gentle happiness. But through the remainder of Hester’s life there were indications that the recluse of the scarlet letter was the object of love and interest with some inhabitant of another land. Letters came, with armorial seals upon them, though of bearings unknown to English heraldry. In the cottage there were articles of comfort and luxury such as Hester never cared to use, but which only wealth could have purchased and affection have imagined for her. There were trifles too, little ornaments, beautiful tokens of a continual remembrance, that must have been wrought by delicate fingers at the impulse of a fond heart. And once Hester was seen embroidering a baby–garment with such a lavish richness of golden fancy as would have raised a public tumult had any infant thus apparelled, been shown to our sober–hued community.

In fine, the gossips of that day believed—and Mr. Surveyor Pue, who made investigations a century later, believed—and one of his recent successors in office, moreover, faithfully believes—that Pearl was not only alive, but married, and happy, and mindful of her mother; and that she would most joyfully have entertained that sad and lonely mother at her fireside.

But there was a more real life for Hester Prynne, here, in New England, that in that unknown region where Pearl had found a home. Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence. She had returned, therefore, and resumed of her own free will, for not the sternest magistrate of that iron period would have imposed it—resumed the symbol of which we have related so dark a tale. Never afterwards did it quit her bosom. But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self–devoted years that made up Hester’s life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world’s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too. And, as Hester Prynne had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment, people brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, as one who had herself gone through a mighty trouble. Women, more especially—in the continually recurring trials of wounded, wasted, wronged, misplaced, or erring and sinful passion—or with the dreary burden of a heart unyielded, because unvalued and unsought came to Hester’s cottage, demanding why they were so wretched, and what the remedy! Hester comforted and counselled them, as best she might. She assured them, too, of her firm belief that, at some brighter period, when the world should have grown ripe for it, in Heaven’s own time, a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness. Earlier in life, Hester had vainly imagined that she herself might be the destined prophetess, but had long since recognised the impossibility that any mission of divine and mysterious truth should be confided to a woman stained with sin, bowed down with shame, or even burdened with a life–long sorrow. The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful, and wise; moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end.

So said Hester Prynne, and glanced her sad eyes downward at the scarlet letter. And, after many, many years, a new grave was delved, near an old and sunken one, in that burial–ground beside which King’s Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tomb–stone served for both. All around, there were monuments carved with armorial bearings; and on this simple slab of slate—as the curious investigator may still discern, and perplex himself with the purport—there appeared the semblance of an engraved escutcheon. It bore a device, a herald’s wording of which may serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded legend; so sombre is it, and relieved only by one ever–glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow.

The Scarlet Letter

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Scarlet Letter: Introduction

The scarlet letter: plot summary, the scarlet letter: detailed summary & analysis, the scarlet letter: themes, the scarlet letter: quotes, the scarlet letter: characters, the scarlet letter: symbols, the scarlet letter: literary devices, the scarlet letter: quizzes, the scarlet letter: theme wheel, brief biography of nathaniel hawthorne.

Historical Context of The Scarlet Letter

Other books related to the scarlet letter.

• Full Title: The Scarlet Letter
• When Written: 1848-1850
• Where Written: Salem, Massachusetts
• When Published: 1850
• Literary Period: Transcendentalism
• Genre: Novel
• Setting: Boston, Massachusetts in the 1640s
• Climax: Dimmesdale's confession and death
• Antagonist: Roger Chillingworth; the Puritans
• Point of View: Third person omniscient

Extra Credit for The Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne and the Salem Witch Trials: Nathaniel Hawthorne was a direct descendent of John Hathorne, (1641-1717), a Puritan justice of the peace. Justice Hathorne is best known for his role as the lead judge in the Salem Witch Trials, in which he sentenced numerous innocent people to death for allegedly practicing witchcraft. Nathaniel added a "w" to his name to distance himself from his infamous ancestor.

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The Scarlet Letter. New Critical Essays

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Table Of Contents

• About the author(s)/editor(s)
• About the book
• This eBook can be cited
• The children of Pearl: The Scarlet Letter in the criticism and fiction of Henry James (Joseph Kuhn)
• Resettlement, mobility and modernity in The Scarlet Letter (Marek Paryż)
• From the Spanish Main to the Book of Revelation; or, Another View of Hester (Janusz Semrau)
• “The Custom-House” as a Biedermeier text (Paweł Stachura)
• The artist as adulterer in The Scarlet Letter (Jørgen Veisland)
• Notes on contributors
• Series index

The letter is alive and well. (Coale 2011: 19)

Anecdotally, The Scarlet Letter (1850) saw the light of day almost immediately upon completion only because its existence in the author’s private escritoire at 14 Mall Street in Salem was first intuited and then insistently assumed by a keen junior partner of a Boston publisher. However wary Hawthorne may have been to relinquish the original manuscript, soon after it appeared in print he would spare but a single leaf from the flames, the title page with the table of contents on the reverse. Alluding to the cumbersome logistics of an unplanned and in the end rushed publication – specifically to the distance between Salem and Boston – the writer quipped that his tightly contained narrative became gracelessly at least fourteen miles long in the process. Uncertain whether his ripeness and fullness of time as a novelist had already come, he could not be sure whether The Scarlet Letter was any good at all to begin with: “I don’t make any such calculation”, he wrote unenthusiastically to a friend (Nathaniel Hawthorne quoted in James [1879: 38]). Indeed, contrary to the later persistent and still current historiographic legend, the book did not become exactly a proverbial overnight success. It was much rather a succès d’estime . It established the author as a full-fledged professional man of letters, but it sold in his lifetime according to various sources just around ten thousand copies, with total royalties amounting to no more than just over a thousand dollars. 1

Given the benefit of hindsight, what is especially striking about the novel’s stretch and range today is not only its array and elasticity of polysemic meanings – and these extend from the historiographic to the theoretical to the philosophical as well as from the allegorical to the ambivalent to the aporetic – but also its ongoing poignant topicality, i.e., its (a)temporal reach, the idealized Poundian condition of news that stays news. The Scarlet Letter is a rare case of a text that has remained in print, cultural circulation, and public awareness for over a century and a half now. It ranks among the top best remembered, most widely discussed, most closely studied, and most profoundly influential American works of fiction ever written. By common consent, it is one of a few select tales that continually ← 7 | 8 → help define as well as refine not only American literature but also American culture at large. In the words of two contemporary commentators of rather different ideological persuasions, Hawthorne’s work is appreciable as “[A] foundation epic of American literacy” (Crain 2000: 209) and “[A] national master text” (Buell 2014: 90). As Paul Auster (quoted in Coale 2011: 16) has pithily identified the standing of The Scarlet Letter : “This is where American literature begins”. As far as structural properties and aesthetic qualities go, the novel in its clarity of conception, exquisiteness of execution and lightness of expression satisfies the definition of a literary tour de force as an inimitable sort of work that both cannot and need not be written again. It is perfectly safe to assume that for all kinds of, more or less, nuanced reasons The Scarlet Letter will continue to be viewed, and actually read, as an indispensable and irreplaceable American classic.

In accordance, as it were, with the well-known Romantic dictum that notwithstanding classics each age must need write its own books, The Scarlet Letter. New Critical Essays finds itself emulating in scope and length Michael Colacurcio’s anthology of 1985 New Essays on the Scarlet Letter , as well as supplementing and opening up a dialogue with that book. In its own right, the present publication may be seen as (un)intentional or serendipitous testimony to Oscar Wilde’s claim that the essence of true art is the capacity to make one pause, look at and ponder over a thing “a second time” (Wilde 2007 : 41). Also, the essays collected here validate Nina Baym’s recognition of The Scarlet Letter as a unique kind of tale and a unique kind of narrative that we are not only likely to approach and enter in our own individual way but we are very likely to approach and enter “in different ways at different points in our lives” (Baym 1986: xxix). This kind of second time and these kinds of different ways are demonstrated here by Joseph Kuhn (Poznań), Marek Paryż (Warsaw), Janusz Semrau (Warsaw), Paweł Stachura (Poznań), and Jørgen Veisland (Gdańsk).

In “The children of Pearl: The Scarlet Letter in the criticism and fiction of Henry James”, Joseph Kuhn focuses at first on the study Hawthorne of 1879 to show how the author was keen to present himself as the American inheritor of the French realists. Although this made James portray Hawthorne as a Salem provincial and a somewhat vague romancer The Scarlet Letter had quite clearly a formative influence on some of his own later fiction, especially through the character of Pearl. Kuhn argues that James elaborates on the Hawthornian figure of the child as a paradoxical transmitter of sin and a new-born anima. According to Kuhn, James takes his discourse ultimately in the direction of the modern Blanchotian themes of the death of the infans and the nekyia or return to the dead. While Hawthorne finds a conservative principle redux for the New World in the child, with James it ← 8 | 9 → turns into an intimation of disaster in the British imperial fabric of late Victorian culture.

In “Resettlement, mobility and modernity in The Scarlet Letter ”, Marek Paryż pays special attention to how the novel sketches the difficult and awkward emergence of modernizing impulses in Puritan New England. First of all, he points out that the story gets under way with a double movement and a double resettlement, semi-independently that of Roger Chillingworth and that of Hester Prynne. Paryż argues that the two central characters embody two tendencies and challenges Hawthorne’s 19 th -century readers could relate to, namely, the professionalization of social life and the emancipation of women. Even if Roger and Hester appear to respect the rules of the social system in which they find themselves embedded, they develop personal systems of values at odds with the official one. In contradistinction, the third central character, Arthur Dimmesdale, comes across as a figure of immobility and indecision, which is a subplot that ends up perpetuating the mid-17 th -century Puritan status quo.

In “From the Spanish Main to the Book of Revelation; or, Another View of Hester”, Janusz Semrau approaches Hawthorne’s text as a kind of post-Reformation morality play. The essay takes its initial cue from the hitherto critically neglected brief performative appearance of Spanish sailors, comparable in their general plot function to that of the troupe of travelling actors in Hamlet . Fundamentally, Semrau recognizes Hawthorne as an unchurched Calvinist and promotes a quasi-Calvinist reading into the Book of Revelation as a re-interpretive tool to The Scarlet Letter . The idea is to map out and explore Hester Prynne’s allegorical capacity as a Babylonian meretrix Augusta and throw thereby a new light on the immediate story as well as on the much-discussed ending of the book, where there can be detected a graphic apocalyptic eschaton rather than a proud or sentimental escutcheon.

In “The Custom-House as a Biedermeier text”, Paweł Stachura reviews some of the most representative readings of Hawthorne’s introductory sketch and proposes a radically new one. He structures his interpretation as an original comparative analysis of “The Custom-House” (along with The Scarlet Letter as a whole) and Adalbert Stifter’s programmatic introduction to his Bunte Steine [Colorful Stones] of 1853. Adalbert Stifter was an Austrian novelist and a short story writer who was one of the most energetic and dedicated advocates of the 19 th -century Biedermeier aesthetics. This middle-class cultural phenomenon in German-speaking countries is best remembered for its use of plenitude, tropes of collection, moralizing stance, and its generally conservative ideology. The ultimate objective of Stachura’s ← 9 | 10 → reading of Hawthorne is to show the applicability of the Biedermeier aesthetics to the study of American literature at large.

In “The artist as adulterer”, Jørgen Veisland highlights at first the letter on Hester Prynne’s dress. He sees the letter A as writing and knowledge, repressed in the author’s mind and manifesting itself as a renewal of the imaginative and creative potential as such. According to Veisland, it becomes evident that Hester herself serves as a mediator for the elusive heterogeneous object of the author’s desire, one that contains both artistic and erotic impulses. With Pearl as embodiment of the work of Art, Hawthorne’s project becomes a quest for the excavation of knowledge, the liberation of womanhood, and the transformation of the letter into an episteme that ends up signifying the integration of nature, being, and artwork. In contradistinction, Veisland argues that Roger Chillingworth represents the futility of the “chill” intellect, while Arthur Dimmesdale personifies the obfuscations of the “dim” soul.

This book is dedicated to the continued memory of Andrzej Kopcewicz (1934–2007), the first professor ordinarius of American literature in the history of English studies in Poland, on the tenth anniversary of his death.

Janusz Semrau

October 9, 2017

Biographical notes

Janusz Semrau (Volume editor)

Janusz Semrau is Associate Professor of American literature at the University of Social Sciences (SAN) in Warsaw. He has authored several books and numerous papers on 19th- and 20th-century American literature.

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Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter: Resilience and Redemption Essay

Introduction, plot summary: love, hate, and guilt, the main characters: a triangle of struggle, the themes of resolve and confession, the society reflection.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th-century American writer who remains renowned for his input in the classical literature. Some researchers even phrase him as “one of the most significant and influential writers” of his age (Lei, 2015, p. 2164). Among the legacy of Hawthorne, it is worth mentioning The scarlet letter , a work which became vital for the writer’s fame. The plot of the novel immerses the readers into the 17th century to demonstrate the environment of the Puritan era in America. The events revolve around the punishment of a young woman, Hester Prynne, who is accused of adultery. Through the main characters, Hester, her husband “Chillingworth” and her lover Dimmesdale, the author used symbolism to unveil his message about adamant will and redemption. Moreover, thanks to the historical fiction genre, Hawthorne managed to elaborate on notable aspects of social history.

Throughout the plot, the reader finds out about a fictive public scandal in 17th-century Boston. The public attention is caught by the young woman, Hester Prynne, who gave birth to an illegitimate child and is accused of adultery. As a result, Hester must regularly stand on the village’s scaffold and wear the scarlet “A” letter on her clothes. Moreover, she resides in prison, shunned by all the villagers. Despite the humiliation, Hester refuses to name her lover, the father of the child.

During one of the trials, it turns out that Hester’s husband, presumably missed, has returned to the village. Enraged by the wife’s betrayal, the husband vows to avenge his pride by destroying Hester’s love for good. The husband takes up a different persona of a doctor, Roger Chillingworth. With this play, he aims to gain the village’s trust and deduce the identity of his adversary.

Chillingworth gets closer to the head of Boston’s church, a young priest Reverend Dimmesdale, who experiences health issues. At the same time, Hester is released from the detention and lives isolated on the outskirts of the village. Her sewing skills only help her in earning money for living alone. However, she successfully defends her newborn daughter, Pearl, from the attempts to take the child away. Furthermore, she remains adamant in refusing to divulge the identity of Pearl’s father.

Gradually, Chillingworth starts to suspect that Dimmesdale could indeed be Hester’s lover. After all, Dimmesdale’s condition appears to be connected to some unresolved mental torment. Chillingworth discusses the matter with the priest several times, trying to make him confess the presumed sins. Eventually, Chillingworth confirms his suspicions when he notices the same “A” letter on Dimmesdale’s body, that his wife wears. However, he is unable to act with hostility due to the earlier promise to Hester.

In the end, Dimmesdale and Hester meet in the forest and confirm their love, while Dimmesdale contemplates about the public confession. Despite several failed attempts, he brings himself to the public reveal as Hester’s lover and Pearl’s father. This act frees Dimmesdale from spiritual suffering and allows him to die peacefully. Chillingworth, who was unable to stop the confession, dies on the next year while leaving the fortune to Pearl. Afterward, mother and daughter leave for England, only to return before Hester’s death. She wears the “A” letter to the very end, and after the demise, she is buried alongside Dimmesdale.

The plot and the central themes undoubtedly revolve around three leading characters: Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Among them, Hester should be considered the main protagonist of the whole story. She is described as a young woman who was unhappily married to an elderly husband. Thus, she could not abstain from searching for a true love, which she found in Dimmesdale. Her name is partially symbolic – according to Lei (2015), the name is derived from the Greek goddess of household Hestia, while the “Prynne” surname alludes to her adultery. However, her nature is characterized by her powerful will and refusal to give up in despair. As Elbert (2014) states, Hester is an epitome of a motherly figure who genuinely cares about her love and child. Hence, Hester managed to endure all the hardships while proudly wearing the scarlet letter.

At the same time, Dimmesdale presents a person who is shameful of his wrongdoings but painfully struggles in the attempt to confess. He is a highly revered head of the town’s church. Furthermore, according to the book, he is so “passionate about God and religion,” that the followers always cling to him (Hawthorne, 2004, p. 64). However, the sin realization slowly kills Dimmesdale since he does not live up to the declared ideals. Eventually, Dimmesdale manages to cope with the shame and release his doubts by voicing the truth to everyone. While he dies soon after, he feels relieved because he finally did the right thing.

Chillingworth represents the dark side of the characters’ past. Most researchers agree on the opinion that he acts as the novel’s villain (İsaoğlu, 2015). He sought a happy family live by marriage with Hester but feels betrayed by her sin. Thus, he is ready to use deceit so he could achieve his form of justice. On this premise, Chillingworth pressures both Hester and Dimmesdale in pursuit of his goal. However, his efforts prove to be futile because of Hester’s resolve and Dimmesdale’s newfound courage to confess. At least, Chillingworth manages to change his ways at the end of life by leaving the fortune to Pearl.

Among the important topics explored in the novel, one should name the unconditional and steadfast love, as well as the struggle to redeem one’s sins as the most central themes. Hester’s unwavering personality demonstrates the first aspect from the beginning to the end. Even when her life was crumbling, she abandoned nether her love for Dimmesdale, nor hope for a better future she eventually attained. Secondly, the suffering of Dimmesdale showcases how destructive one’s unconfessed sin can become. According to Lei (2015), the character serves as a parallel to the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. Nonetheless, the author shows the hardships of redemption, which still can lead to salvation.

While the mentioned themes dominate throughout the novel, one can see one more aspect highlighted by the author. In the description of the 17th century, Hawthorne presents the flaws of society, which remain actual to the present days. Particularly, Hawthorne accentuates the ostracizing of Hester to demonstrate the inability of the community to understand her conditions. Hence, one can apply a famous saying that people fear what they do not understand. Such a failure leads to the isolation of society members who are not evil and just lost their way.

In his historical fiction, The scarlet letter , Hawthorne succeeded in exposing notable moral themes. The plot is centered around the adultery of the main heroine Hester and a local priest Dimmesdale. The capacity of the former to withstand social pressure and the final resolve of the latter to reveal the sin emphasize the topics of spiritual resilience and the redemption of the mistakes. Also, Hawthorne touched the issues of society’s everlasting shortcomings, like the misunderstanding and isolation of those who break the public rules.

Elbert, M. (2014) ‘The woman’s law in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter ’, in Bendixen, A. (ed.) A companion to the American novel . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Son, pp. 373-393.

Hawthorne, N. (2004) The scarlet letter . Smyrna, DE: Prestwick House Inc.

İsaoğlu, H. (2015) ‘A Freudian psychoanalytic analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter ’, The Journal of Academic Social Science Studies , 3(32), pp. 499-511.

Lei, N. (2015) ‘A brief study on the symbolic meaning of the main characters’ name in The Scarlet Letter ’, Theory and Practice in Language Studies , 5(10), pp. 2164-2168.

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IvyPanda . 2020. "Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter: Resilience and Redemption." July 7, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hawthornes-the-scarlet-letter-resilience-and-redemption/.

1. IvyPanda . "Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter: Resilience and Redemption." July 7, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hawthornes-the-scarlet-letter-resilience-and-redemption/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter: Resilience and Redemption." July 7, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hawthornes-the-scarlet-letter-resilience-and-redemption/.

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The Scarlet Letter

Chapter xxiv. conclusion.

After many days, when time sufficed for the people to arrange their thoughts in reference to the foregoing scene, there was more than one account of what had been witnessed on the scaffold.

Most of the spectators testified to having seen, on the breast of the unhappy minister, a SCARLET LETTER--the very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynne--imprinted in the flesh. As regarded its origin there were various explanations, all of which must necessarily have been conjectural. Some affirmed that the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had begun a course of penance--which he afterwards, in so many futile methods, followed out--by inflicting a hideous torture on himself. Others contended that the stigma had not been produced until a long time subsequent, when old Roger Chillingworth, being a potent necromancer, had caused it to appear, through the agency of magic and poisonous drugs. Others, again and those best able to appreciate the minister's peculiar sensibility, and the wonderful operation of his spirit upon the body--whispered their belief, that the awful symbol was the effect of the ever-active tooth of remorse, gnawing from the inmost heart outwardly, and at last manifesting Heaven's dreadful judgment by the visible presence of the letter. The reader may choose among these theories. We have thrown all the light we could acquire upon the portent, and would gladly, now that it has done its office, erase its deep print out of our own brain, where long meditation has fixed it in very undesirable distinctness.

It is singular, nevertheless, that certain persons, who were spectators of the whole scene, and professed never once to have removed their eyes from the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, denied that there was any mark whatever on his breast, more than on a new-born infant's. Neither, by their report, had his dying words acknowledged, nor even remotely implied, any--the slightest--connexion on his part, with the guilt for which Hester Prynne had so long worn the scarlet letter. According to these highly-respectable witnesses, the minister, conscious that he was dying--conscious, also, that the reverence of the multitude placed him already among saints and angels--had desired, by yielding up his breath in the arms of that fallen woman, to express to the world how utterly nugatory is the choicest of man's own righteousness. After exhausting life in his efforts for mankind's spiritual good, he had made the manner of his death a parable, in order to impress on his admirers the mighty and mournful lesson, that, in the view of Infinite Purity, we are sinners all alike. It was to teach them, that the holiest amongst us has but attained so far above his fellows as to discern more clearly the Mercy which looks down, and repudiate more utterly the phantom of human merit, which would look aspiringly upward. Without disputing a truth so momentous, we must be allowed to consider this version of Mr. Dimmesdale's story as only an instance of that stubborn fidelity with which a man's friends--and especially a clergyman's--will sometimes uphold his character, when proofs, clear as the mid-day sunshine on the scarlet letter, establish him a false and sin-stained creature of the dust.

The authority which we have chiefly followed--a manuscript of old date, drawn up from the verbal testimony of individuals, some of whom had known Hester Prynne, while others had heard the tale from contemporary witnesses fully confirms the view taken in the foregoing pages. Among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister's miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence:--"Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!"

Nothing was more remarkable than the change which took place, almost immediately after Mr. Dimmesdale's death, in the appearance and demeanour of the old man known as Roger Chillingworth. All his strength and energy--all his vital and intellectual force--seemed at once to desert him, insomuch that he positively withered up, shrivelled away and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun. This unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge; and when, by its completest triumph consummation that evil principle was left with no further material to support it--when, in short, there was no more Devil's work on earth for him to do, it only remained for the unhumanised mortal to betake himself whither his master would find him tasks enough, and pay him his wages duly. But, to all these shadowy beings, so long our near acquaintances--as well Roger Chillingworth as his companions we would fain be merciful. It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in its utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual fife upon another: each leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate hater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his subject. Philosophically considered, therefore, the two passions seem essentially the same, except that one happens to be seen in a celestial radiance, and the other in a dusky and lurid glow. In the spiritual world, the old physician and the minister--mutual victims as they have been--may, unawares, have found their earthly stock of hatred and antipathy transmuted into golden love.

Leaving this discussion apart, we have a matter of business to communicate to the reader. At old Roger Chillingworth's decease, (which took place within the year), and by his last will and testament, of which Governor Bellingham and the Reverend Mr. Wilson were executors, he bequeathed a very considerable amount of property, both here and in England to little Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne.

So Pearl--the elf child--the demon offspring, as some people up to that epoch persisted in considering her--became the richest heiress of her day in the New World. Not improbably this circumstance wrought a very material change in the public estimation; and had the mother and child remained here, little Pearl at a marriageable period of life might have mingled her wild blood with the lineage of the devoutest Puritan among them all. But, in no long time after the physician's death, the wearer of the scarlet letter disappeared, and Pearl along with her. For many years, though a vague report would now and then find its way across the sea--like a shapeless piece of driftwood tossed ashore with the initials of a name upon it--yet no tidings of them unquestionably authentic were received. The story of the scarlet letter grew into a legend. Its spell, however, was still potent, and kept the scaffold awful where the poor minister had died, and likewise the cottage by the sea-shore where Hester Prynne had dwelt. Near this latter spot, one afternoon some children were at play, when they beheld a tall woman in a gray robe approach the cottage-door. In all those years it had never once been opened; but either she unlocked it or the decaying wood and iron yielded to her hand, or she glided shadow-like through these impediments--and, at all events, went in.

On the threshold she paused--turned partly round--for perchance the idea of entering alone and all so changed, the home of so intense a former life, was more dreary and desolate than even she could bear. But her hesitation was only for an instant, though long enough to display a scarlet letter on her breast.

And Hester Prynne had returned, and taken up her long-forsaken shame! But where was little Pearl? If still alive she must now have been in the flush and bloom of early womanhood. None knew--nor ever learned with the fulness of perfect certainty--whether the elf-child had gone thus untimely to a maiden grave; or whether her wild, rich nature had been softened and subdued and made capable of a woman's gentle happiness. But through the remainder of Hester's life there were indications that the recluse of the scarlet letter was the object of love and interest with some inhabitant of another land. Letters came, with armorial seals upon them, though of bearings unknown to English heraldry. In the cottage there were articles of comfort and luxury such as Hester never cared to use, but which only wealth could have purchased and affection have imagined for her. There were trifles too, little ornaments, beautiful tokens of a continual remembrance, that must have been wrought by delicate fingers at the impulse of a fond heart. And once Hester was seen embroidering a baby-garment with such a lavish richness of golden fancy as would have raised a public tumult had any infant thus apparelled, been shown to our sober-hued community.

In fine, the gossips of that day believed--and Mr. Surveyor Pue, who made investigations a century later, believed--and one of his recent successors in office, moreover, faithfully believes--that Pearl was not only alive, but married, and happy, and mindful of her mother; and that she would most joyfully have entertained that sad and lonely mother at her fireside.

But there was a more real life for Hester Prynne, here, in New England, than in that unknown region where Pearl had found a home. Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence. She had returned, therefore, and resumed--of her own free will, for not the sternest magistrate of that iron period would have imposed it--resumed the symbol of which we have related so dark a tale. Never afterwards did it quit her bosom. But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester's life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too. And, as Hester Prynne had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment, people brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, as one who had herself gone through a mighty trouble. Women, more especially--in the continually recurring trials of wounded, wasted, wronged, misplaced, or erring and sinful passion--or with the dreary burden of a heart unyielded, because unvalued and unsought came to Hester's cottage, demanding why they were so wretched, and what the remedy! Hester comforted and counselled them, as best she might. She assured them, too, of her firm belief that, at some brighter period, when the world should have grown ripe for it, in Heaven's own time, a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness. Earlier in life, Hester had vainly imagined that she herself might be the destined prophetess, but had long since recognised the impossibility that any mission of divine and mysterious truth should be confided to a woman stained with sin, bowed down with shame, or even burdened with a life-long sorrow. The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful, and wise; moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end.

So said Hester Prynne, and glanced her sad eyes downward at the scarlet letter. And, after many, many years, a new grave was delved, near an old and sunken one, in that burial-ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tomb-stone served for both. All around, there were monuments carved with armorial bearings; and on this simple slab of slate--as the curious investigator may still discern, and perplex himself with the purport--there appeared the semblance of an engraved escutcheon. It bore a device, a herald's wording of which may serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded legend; so sombre is it, and relieved only by one ever-glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow:--

"ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES"

The Scarlet Letter Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Scarlet Letter is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Why does Dimmesdale decide to flee with Hester?

Dimmesdale looks beyong his place in the community and embraces his role as a father. He wants his family, so he decides to leave.

who is the elder clergyman who speaks to hester

The elder minister is John Wilson.

Who seems especially interested in the punishment that is about to take place?

That would be Roger Chillingworth.

Study Guide for The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter study guide contains a biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Scarlet Letter
• The Scarlet Letter Summary
• The Scarlet Letter Video
• Character List

Essays for The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

• The Little Human A Incarnate
• Perception Blanketed by Passion
• Original Sin
• Hawthorne's "Witch-Baby" in The Scarlet Letter
• Hester's Role as Both the Sinner and Saint

Lesson Plan for The Scarlet Letter

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Scarlet Letter
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Scarlet Letter Bibliography

E-Text of The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter e-text contains the full text of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

• INTRODUCTORY. THE CUSTOM-HOUSE
• CHAPTER I. THE PRISON-DOOR
• CHAPTER II. THE MARKET-PLACE
• CHAPTER III. THE RECOGNITION
• CHAPTER IV. THE INTERVIEW

Wikipedia Entries for The Scarlet Letter

• Introduction
• Major theme
• Publication history
• Critical response

• Study Guides
• Homework Questions

The Scarlett Letter Analysis (1)

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Hester Prynne — The Scarlet Letter: A Character Analysis of Hester Prynne

The Scarlet Letter: a Character Analysis of Hester Prynne

• Categories: Hester Prynne

About this sample

Words: 516 |

Published: Apr 11, 2019

Words: 516 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Works Cited

• Bloom, H. (Ed.). (2010). Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Infobase Publishing.
• Davis, R. (2009). The Scarlet Letter: A Reading. Twayne Publishers.
• Hawthorne, N. (1850). The Scarlet Letter. Ticknor, Reed, and Fields.
• Kesterson, D. B. (Ed.). (2012). The Scarlet Letter Handbook. Wiley.
• Kopley, R., & Barnes, E. W. (Eds.). (2008). The Cambridge Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Cambridge University Press.
• Leavis, Q. D. (1962). The Scarlet Letter and the Great Tradition. Chatto & Windus.
• Martin, T. (Ed.). (2017). The Scarlet Letter: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Criticism. W. W. Norton & Company.
• Mills, B. (2013). Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter: A Critical Resource Guide and Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography of Literary and Scholarly Works. Routledge.
• Neal, J. T. (2000). Hawthorne: A Collection of Critical Essays. Prentice Hall.
• New, W. H. (1986). Hawthorne's Divided Loyalties: England and America in His Works. University of Georgia Press.

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The Scarlet Letter is a timeless classic that explores themes of sin, redemption, and the human condition. One of the most notable aspects of the novel is Hawthorne's use of direct characterization to develop the characters and [...]

The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman who is publicly shamed for committing adultery and forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" on her clothing as a mark of her sin. One of the central characters in the novel [...]

When a person or character makes a mistake or commits an affective act, their life can be altered both negatively and positively. This idea takes an important contribution in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This novel [...]

Hester Prynne is considered to be both one of the first heroines and feminist icons in American Literature. This is despite Nathaniel Hawthorne, born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, being labelled as a misogynist, [...]

No matter how much someone may be punished for a severe crime, nothing will be able to compare with the regret, guilt, and self-reproach that they will endure, as these negative mindsets can drive one to insanity, or even worse, [...]

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne accepts that she has sinned and realizes that she must pay the price for her crime. In doing so she becomes overwhelmed with courage and conviction and assumes a [...]

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Maryse Condé, ‘Grande Dame’ of Francophone Literature, Dies at 90

She explored the history and culture of Africa, the West Indies and Europe in work that made her a perennial favorite for the Nobel Prize.

By Clay Risen

Maryse Condé, a writer from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe whose explorations of race, gender and colonialism across the Francophone world made her a perennial favorite for the Nobel Prize in Literature, died on Tuesday in Apt, a town in southern France. She was 90.

Her death, at a hospital, was confirmed by her husband, Richard Philcox, who translated many of her works into English.

Ms. Condé’s work, beginning with her first novel, “Hérémakhonon” (1976), came at a pivotal time, as the notion of French literature, centered on the canonical works of French writers, began to give way to the multifarious notion of Francophone literature, drawing from all parts of the French-speaking world.

Having lived in Guadeloupe, France, West Africa and the United States, Ms. Condé was able to imbue her work with a kaleidoscopic cosmopolitanism; she was equally at home with memoirs, novels set in 18th-century Mali and 17th-century Massachusetts, and even a book of food writing . Her sure-handedness won her acclaim as the “grande dame” of Francophone literature.

She was twice shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, given to novelists writing in languages other than English. After the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature was canceled in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal among the award committee, she received the New Academy Prize , created by a group of Swedish cultural figures as a temporary replacement — the first and last person to receive the award.

Like other writers grappling with the legacy of colonialism, Ms. Condé centered her work on broadly political themes, examining the formation of different individual and collective identities. But she stood apart in her adamant nonconformity.

She supported African independence, but she was critical of the leaders who came after it, accusing them of corruption and empty promises. She was proud to call herself a Black writer, but she lashed out at movements like Negritude and Pan-Africanism, which she said replicated white racism by reducing all Black people to a single identity.

Much of her work was historical. Her breakout novel, “Segu” (1984), which sold more than 200,000 copies in France, traces the life of a royal adviser in the Bambara Empire of West Africa, which flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries but collapsed under pressure from European and Islamic forces.

Among her favorite books as a child was “Wuthering Heights,” and in 1995 she offered a retelling of Emily Brontë’s classic tale of obsession and revenge with “Windward Heights,” set in Cuba and Guadeloupe.

She had already done something similar with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter” and Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible,” drawing on elements of both works to tell the story of an enslaved woman caught up in the Salem witch trials in “I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem” (1986), which won the Grand Prix Littéraire de la Femme.

Since then she was said to be a frequent contender for the Nobel Prize, though she professed a lack of interest in the results — or in the trappings of success generally.

“I am drawn to people ready to disobey the law and who refuse to accept orders from anybody — people who, like me, don’t believe in material wealth, for whom money is nothing, owning a home is nothing, a car is nothing,” she said in a 1989 interview with the journal Callaloo. “Those kinds of people tend to be my friends.”

Maryse Boucolon was born on Feb. 11, 1934, in Pointe-à-Pitre, a city in Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. Her parents were both affluent educators: Her mother, Jeanne Quidal, ran a girls’ school, and her father, Auguste Boucolon, taught school before founding a bank.

The youngest of eight siblings, Maryse grew up protected, and isolated, by her parents’ relative wealth. Her parents did not allow her to attend the island’s ubiquitous street festivals or mix with people they considered beneath them socially, which she said also kept her ignorant of the worst impacts of colonialism and racism.

She began writing at an early age. When she was about 12 she wrote a one-act play as a gift for her mother on her birthday. But her political awakening came more gradually.

As a teenager she read “Black Shack Alley” (1950), a semi-autobiographical novel by Joseph Zobel about a poor Black boy in Martinique, another French Caribbean department. That book revealed to her the sort of experiences that most Black Caribbean people endured under colonialism.

When she was 16, her parents sent her to Paris to complete her education. They had told her the city was the center of reason and justice, but instead she found herself the object of racism and sexism.

She went on to study at the Sorbonne, and to mix with Paris’s Black intellectual circles. In 1959 she met a Guinean actor, Mamadou Condé, and they married a year later. But the relationship soon soured, and in 1960 she moved to Africa to teach.

Over the next 13 years she lived for long stints in Guinea, Ghana and Senegal. The region was in the throes of independence and decolonization, and it attracted thinkers and activists from around the Black diaspora.

As she moved among them, Ms. Condé imbibed their heady mix of Marxism and Black Power, and she began to put those ideas into writing, first as a playwright and then, in 1976, in “Hérémakhonon,” which means “Waiting for Happiness” in the West African language Malinke.

Though she insisted it was not autobiographical, “Hérémakhonon” tells the story of a Black woman from Guadeloupe who lives for a time in Paris before going to Africa in hopes of finding herself — only to realize, in the end, that geography does not hold the key to one’s identity.

By then she had returned to Paris, where in 1975 she received a doctorate in literature from the Sorbonne. Long estranged from her husband, she had begun a relationship with Mr. Philcox. She finally divorced Mr. Condé in 1981, and she and Mr. Philcox married a year later.

Along with her husband, Ms. Condé is survived by three daughters from her first marriage, Sylvie, Aïcha and Leïla Condé; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

She held a professorship at Columbia University, and she also taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Maryland and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Ms. Condé and Mr. Philcox returned to Guadeloupe in 1986 and lived there until a few years ago, when they returned to France so she could be closer to treatment for a neurological disease.

The disease left her unable to see. She wrote her last three books, all published since 2020, by dictating them, chapter by chapter, to her husband.

She was first shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2015 for the body of her work. She was shortlisted again in 2023, when she was 89, for her final book , “The Gospel According to the New World,” about a dark-skinned boy in Martinique who may or may not be the son of God.

Though she did not win the prize — it went to Georgi Gospodinov for his book “Time Shelter” — she did achieve the distinction of being the oldest person ever shortlisted for a Booker.

Clay Risen is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk. More about Clay Risen