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  • This is a story about a woman named Hester Prynne, a young woman who has committed adultery

  • and has birthed an illegitimate child while living in Boston during the Puritan period.

  • She is publicly shamed and forced to stand in public for all to see and must wear, as

  • part of her punishment, a red letter “A” for the rest of her life. The townspeople

  • question her as to the identity of the father of the child, but Hester does not give up

  • the name.

  • Hester and her baby, which she names Pearl, live in the forest away from town. As Pearl

  • grows up to a toddler, Hester notices that she begins acting strange, like overly playful

  • and imp-like.

  • Meanwhile, a stranger named Roger Chillingworth arrives in Boston, a doctor and learned man.

  • He reveals to Hester that he is, in fact, her husband, who was rumored to have died

  • at sea.

  • Chillingworth decides to stay in town for a while and gravitates toward Reverend Dimmesdale,

  • a young clergyman who is suffering from an unknown illness. Chillingworth claims that

  • Dimmesdale’s ailments are caused by spiritual conflicts.

  • The stress for Dimmesdale is beginning to build and boil over as guilt overwhelms him.

  • One night, he stands on the scaffold where Hester had stood alone in front of the townspeople,

  • and screams aloud, confessing that he is Pearl’s father. Hester arrives with Pearl and the

  • three of them hold hands and watch the stars. Suddenly, Chillingworth approaches and suspects

  • that Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father.

  • Hester talks with Chillingworth, pleading that he stop tormenting Dimmesdale. She wants

  • to tell Dimmesdale who Chillingworth really is and so she meets Dimmesdale and tells him

  • that Chillingworth is her husband.

  • Hester talks Dimmesdale into leaving Boston with her and Pearl by boarding a ship and

  • living far away. This plan seems to relieve Dimmesdale, as he experiences joy and happiness

  • at this news.

  • As Dimmesdale prepares for his last sermon, Hester makes arrangements on a ship for her,

  • Pearl, and Dimmesdale.

  • On the day of Dimmesdale’s last sermon, everyone is gathered in the marketplace. Hester

  • discovers that Chillingworth is also a passenger on the ship and so she doesn’t know what

  • to do.

  • After Dimmesdale gives his sermon, he sees Hester and Pearl in the crowd and leads them

  • to the scaffold to tell everyone their secret. And as he dies on the scaffold, Hester and

  • Pearl comfort him.

  • In the end, Hester and Pearl leave Boston, Pearl inherits Chillingworth’s wealth, and

  • Hester returns to live the remaining days of her life in her old cabin.

This is a story about a woman named Hester Prynne, a young woman who has committed adultery

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