Scarlet Letter Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1: Hester Prynne has committed adultery. Two years ago her husband in Europe sent her on ahead to America while he settled some business affairs. Alone in the small town of Boston, Hester has shocked and angered her neighbors by secretly taking a lover and bringing forth a girl child. The Puritans of Boston are shocked that she has done this thing. They are angry because she will not reveal the name of the father …

…the pseudonym, (fictitious name), Roger Chillingworth. At first, she fears that he wishes them bodily harm, but he assures her that he wishes her to live - to live in shame. His object is to have revenge on her lover, whose name he expects her to reveal to him. When she refuses to tell him the identity of the father of the child, he explains that he will persist until he eventually learns the ma