The Scarlet Letter

                                                         Nathaniel Hawthorne

 The year is 1642. Boston is a Puritan settlement, and one of its citizens, Hester Prynne, is led from the prison to the scaffold to stand in judgment before the town magistrates. In her arms, she carries her infant daughter Pearl, whose birth has sparked this inquiry. On the scaffold, Hester refuses to reveal the name of the child's father. As punishment, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet letter A that marks her as an adulteress.

• Hester's long-lost husband, whom she believed to have been killed by the Native Americans, returns to Boston. No one but Hester recognizes him because he has taken the assumed name of Dr. Roger Chillingworth. He forces her to keep his identity a secret as he conducts an investigation into the identity of Pearl's father.
• Hester lives with Pearl at the edge of town while Chillingworth moves in with the beloved Reverend Dimmesdale. Recognizing Dimmesdale as Hester’s one-time lover, Chillingworth torments the guilt-stricken man for years, keeping him alive out of spite.
• Finally, Dimmesdale climbs the scaffold and reveals the letter A that he has been carving into his chest. He confesses in front of everyone, then dies of his wounds in Hester's arms. Chillingworth dies shortly thereafter, having exacted his revenge. Hester leaves Boston, only to return years later and live the rest of her days under the mark of the scarlet letter.