The Scarlet Letter: Complete Character Analysis

Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest as punishment for committing adultery in 1640s Puritan Boston. She refuses to name Pearl's father (protecting Arthur Dimmesdale), endures public shame on the scaffold, and raises her daughter as an outcast. Through dignity, hard work, and charitable service, she gradually transforms the community's perception of the letter from "Adultery" to "Able."

She represents how public acknowledgment of sin—while painful—can ultimately enable growth and redemption. Her refusal to hide, combined with her charitable actions, slowly earns community respect. Years later, she voluntarily returns to Boston and continues wearing the "A" by choice, having made it part of her identity rather than just punishment.

Arthur Dimmesdale is the young, eloquent Puritan minister who secretly fathered Pearl with Hester. While she wears public shame, he hides his guilt, maintaining his reputation as community's moral leader. The secret destroys him: he develops mysterious illness, clutches his chest constantly (hiding a psychosomatic scarlet letter), fasts excessively, and whips himself in private. His hypocrisy—preaching about sin while hiding his own—torments him more than public punishment tormented Hester.

He finally confesses publicly on the scaffold seven years later, reveals the scarlet letter on his chest (whether real or imagined), acknowledges Pearl as his daughter, and dies. Hawthorne uses him to argue that hidden guilt rots from within, while public acknowledgment—though painful—enables healing.

Roger Chillingworth is Hester's elderly scholarly husband who was presumed dead but returns to Boston. Discovering Hester wore the scarlet letter, he demands to know who fathered Pearl. When she refuses to tell, he vows to discover the identity and seek revenge. He realizes Dimmesdale is Pearl's father and becomes his physician, spending years psychologically torturing him while pretending to help.

His revenge consumes and deforms him—he becomes increasingly demon-like in appearance, physically corrupted by his hidden malice. When Dimmesdale dies (escaping through confession), Chillingworth loses his purpose and dies within a year. He represents how revenge destroys the avenger as thoroughly as the target.

Pearl is Hester's daughter born from the adultery—wild, elflike, intelligent, and always dressed in red (matching the scarlet letter). She seems to embody both the sin that created her and the truth that demands acknowledgment. She refuses to accept Dimmesdale as her father until he publicly claims her on the scaffold.

She represents truth that cannot be hidden: she's living evidence of the adultery, constantly reminding everyone of what happened. Her wildness suggests freedom from Puritan constraints. When Dimmesdale finally confesses, Pearl kisses him and cries—becoming fully human rather than merely symbolic, suggesting truth acknowledged enables genuine connection.