Final Prep: Hawthorne, Miller, Clemens, Crane
             The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawtorne takes place in the seventeenth century, New England colony of Massachusetts. Hester Prynne is the protagonist of the novel. She is an English woman and the wife of Roger Chillingworth. She is tried and condemned for her sin of adultery with Dimmesdale and charged to wear the scarlet letter, "A", an indication of adultery, on the bosom of her gown forever. Even though she has a daughter out of wedlock, she refuses to reveal who the father is. Arthur Dimmesdale is a young, handsome, and unmarried pastor of Hester's church. He commits
             adultery with Hester, he is guilty of hiding his sin. His suffering is reflected in his physical appearance. He is also considered a protagonist, like Hester. Roger Chillingworth is a physician who has sent his wife ahead of him to America. He
             fails to join her quickly, because he is captured by Indians from where he gathers the knowledge of herbal medicine. He is an old, evil, vicious, ugly, and deformed man. His vengeance on Dimmesdale, while pretending to treat him, makes him evil. Pearl is the daughter of Hester and Dimmesdale. She is the living symbol of the scarlet
             letter and has peculiar traits that make her sometimes appear as a demon. Mistress Hibbins is the of Governor Bellingham in the novel. She appears to be know
             of Hester and Dimmesdale's adultery and their secret meeting in the forest. She alone dares to meet Hester in the open and invites her to join in the festivities when Hester goes to the Governor's house.
             Hester wants to protect the identity of Dimmesdale as Pearl's father in order to protect the minister from the public shame of sin. Hester's husband wants to find out the identity of Hester's lover, so he can have his revenge. When he begins to suspect that it is Dimmesdale, he tortures the minister while pretending to help him. A woman named Hester Prynne and a preacher na...