Hester Prynne
The main protagonist of the story is Hester Prynne as she works against the discriminating mentality of the Puritan community and the dark menacing grasps of her ill-fated scarlet letter. From a beautiful flawless young woman, Hester turns into a sad and forlorn pariah living on the edge of town with her daughter. However, towards the end of the novel, Hester's compassionate and warm attitude was able to win the respect and trust of others. Although the letter “A” on her chest would never be able to vanish completely, her acts of kindness among the poor revealed that even in her circumstances, Hester would never let her sin define who she was.
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Hester (right) sewing clothes for a living.
Her daughter (right) Pearl |
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Hester gaining much more respect from
townspeople because
she became more active in society. She helps the needy, treats the sick. |
Pearl
Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne, mainly exists in this novel as a symbol and a reminder of Hester's scarlet letter. Known to everyone as a little imp or devil, Pearl was indeed a curious and sensitive character who offered insights into the mind of the adults. As the author describes Pearl's constant fascination with her mother's scarlet letter, it can be inferred that Pearl serves as a protector, making sure that Hester's sin would never be forgotten.
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Pearl is the kid with the red dress chasing the kids who
kept on teasing her especially her mother Hester. |
"Mother,' said little Pearl, 'the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. Now see! There it is, playing a good way off. Stand you here, and let me run and catch it. I am but a child. It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!"
Arthur Dimmesdale
As the true father of Pearl, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is a character who has to struggle with revealing his sinfulness and defending his morality. Throughout the novel, Dimmesdale's hand always strays to his heart in times of trouble or anguish because he too has to cope with his own scarlet letter. Even though Hester was publicly shamed and is the one who bears the clearly visible “A”, Dimmesdale's continuous internal dilemmas proves that keeping the sin hidden is more agonizing than confessing out loud.
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| Arthur doing his homily. |
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| Arthur punisihing himself by whipping his back |
Roger Chillingworth
Initially Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth is the main antagonist as he ultimately represents all the evil and wrongdoing in the story. By practicing all sorts of alchemy, sometimes Chillingworth's experiments lead to the notion of plain murder as he is driven on by the thought of killing Dimmesdale. Chillingworth's sin is greater than that of Dimmesdale's and Hester's mainly because its intention is to seek revenge rather than love and forgive.
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| This is in Chapter 14: Hester and the Physician. |
