Scarlet Letter

22 Pages 5572 Words

Chapter One: The Prison Door
Summary
A large crowd of Puritans stands outside of the prison, waiting for the door to open. The prison is described as a, "wooden jail...already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front." The iron on the prison is rusting and creates an overall appearance of decay.
Outside of the building, next to the door, a rosebush stands in full bloom. Hawthorne remarks that it is possible, "this rosebush...had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson, as she entered the prison door." He then plucks one of the roses and offers it to the reader as a "moral blossom" to be found later in the story.

Chapter Two: The Market Place
Summary
The crowd in front of the jail is a mixture of men and women, all maintaining severe looks of disapproval. Several of the women begin to discuss Hester Prynne, and soon vow that Hester would not have received such a light sentence for her crime if they had been the judges. One woman, the ugliest of the group, goes so far as to advocate death for Hester.
Hester emerges from the prison with elegance and a lady-like air to her movements. She clutches her three month old daughter, Pearl. She has sown a large scarlet "A" over her breast, using her finest skill to make the badge of shame appear to be a decoration. Several of the women are outraged when they see how she has chosen to display the letter, and want to rip it off.
Hester is led through the crowd to the scaffold of the pillory. She ascends the stairs and stands, now fully revealed to the crowd, in her position of shame and punishment for the next few hours. Hawthorne compares her beauty and elegance while on the scaffold to an image of Madonna and Child, or Divine Maternity.
The ordeal is strenuous and difficult for Hester. She tries to make the images in front of her vanish by thinking about her past. It is revealed ...