Sunday, November 1, 2009

The Scarlet Letter Chapter Summaries 1-4

Chapters 1-2
Chapter one contains little more than introductions to the scene. It is the seventeenth century in Boston. The narrator talks about how, even though they had much faith in the new colony, the people still built a prison and cememtery first. Much detail is given to the prison door, especially the heavy iron spikes, but also to the rose bush that is growing next to the door. This is explained as a kind of consoling aspect to the prisoners.

Chapter two as a crowd watches, Hester Prynne, a young woman holding an infant, emerges from the prison door and makes her way to a scaffold, where she is to be publicly condemned. On her chest is a a large scarlet A which stands for her crime of adultery. As she stand on the scaffold, Hester begins to recall her early life, and to look upon her current situation with disbelief.

Chapters 3-4
In the crowd that is surrounding the scaffold, Hester sees a man that she recognizes. This man begins to speak to another man about why Hester is on the scaffold, which the other man explains to him. The man then explains that he just now made it to Boston. Members of the church then begin to ask Hester to reveal the identity of the father of her child. Young Reverend Dimmesdale tells Hester it is best not to have pity on the man and to just tell everyone who it is, but she still refuses. After a sermonby Reverend Wilson, Hester is led back to jail.

In chapter four, Hester comes face to face with her husband, who has been called to provide medical assistance for her and her child. He makes the child a potion, which Hester believes is poison. He explains that he is not angry at the child, but instead he is more upset at him self. He then makes Hester a potion, which she drinks. He then makes her vow that she will not reveal his identity and he vows that he will find the father.

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