The year was 1642 in Boston when crowds gathers to see the
official punishment of a young woman named Hester Prynne who has
been found guilty of adultery. She must wear a scarlet A and
stand on the scaffold, exposed to public humiliation in
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850). In the crowd,
she sees her long lost husband. He is told of his wife’s
adultery and declares that child’s father also be punished,
vowing to find him. Her husband then changes his name to Roger
Chillingworth. Roger visits Hester in jail and demands to know
the name of her lover, she refuses. She is released from jail
and settles with her daughter Pearl in a cottage at the edge of
town, together they lead a somber life. Pearl grows up
fascinated with the scarlet A and is capricious and unruly. It
is suggested that she be taken from Hester. The story deals with
issues of sin, guilt and the puritan way of life. The Scarlet
Letter is the sixth book in Classics month The Scarlet Letter
can be found in your local library, the webs