The Scarlet Letter Summaries

Chapters 1-2


At the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, the town of Boston is gathered around waiting to hear Hester Prynne's punishment. Hester has commited adultry and has been sent to prison for it. She comes out of prison with the letter "A' presented on her clothing, and she is holding a baby. The scarlet "A" that Hester wears on her clothes stands for her crime. As she steps onto the scaffold, everyone in the crowd taunts her and makes fun of her.

Chapters 3-4

In chapters 3 and 4, Hester is out on the scaffold. She instantly spots her husband, Roger Chillingworth, who is hiding his identity and acts like he has recently been caotured by Native Americans. As he and Hester continue to keep his identity a secret, he turns to someone in the crowd and asks many questions about Hester, acting as if he had never seen her. The stranger answers her. Hester refuses to tell anyone the baby's father and is sentenced to 3 hours on the scaffold and the "A" on her clothes. We then meet Governor Bellingham, Reverend Wilson, and Revered Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale explains to Hester that she should confess the name of the baby's father but doesn't make it a big issue. When she retreats back to prison, she and Chillingworth, a doctor, meet. He tries to give her a potion, but Hester refuses to drink it because she thinks he is trying to posion her. He tries to get Hester to reveal the baby's father, but she doesn't give in. Instead, they both promise to each other that they will not revel the identities, but he has his revenge in mind.

Chapters 5-6

When Hester is released from prison, the narrator reveals how talented she is with sewing. She can leave Boston but stays there in a cabin. She makes clothes and even sews gloves for the governor. Hester loves her beautiful daughter, Pearl, and would give anything for her. Although she loves her very much, she is worried about Pearl and her trouble that she gets in. One thing Pearl continuously says when Hester talks to her about God is, "I have no heavenly father," which worries Hester. The children and the townspeople are mean to Pearl, as well as Hester. In fact, the townspeople think she is a demon-child.

Chapters 7-8

Hester takes a visit to the Governor's Hall where she is to deliver gloves and to find out whether or not she will keep Pearl. The townspeople think Pearl should be taken away because they think she is a demon-child. They also reason that if Pearl is not a demon-child, the child should still live with a better parent than Hester. When Governor Bellingham, Reverend Wilson, Chillingworth, and Reverend Dimmesdale come into the room, they look at Pearl and tease her. They take a look at Hester and immediately asks why she should keep the child. Hester replies that she will be a better parent to Pearl and will teach her that what she (Hester) has done is wrong. The four are in doubt of this. Wilson asks Pearl about religion, and Pearl refuses to answer, which makes Wilson angry. Dimmesdale defends Hester and Pearl, and they agree that Hester should keep the child. Chillingworth wants the men to discover who Pearl's father really is, but they refuse. As Hester is leaving, if she wouldn't have been able to keep Pearl, she tells Mistress Hibbins that she would have went with her and her witches.

Chapters 9-10

In Boston, Chillingworth comes as a doctor, still with hidden identity. Dimmesdale becomes very ill with very severe health problems. Chillingworth insists that he should live with Dimmesdale to cure him. They get a home next to a cemetary where they are satisfied. The townspeople love the fact that Chillingworth is living with Dimmesdale to help him, but as time goes on, they look at him as not the "miracle" they thought he was. Chillingworth is constantly trying to find out what is wrong with Dimmesdale and is concerned. One day, they begin an awkward conversation about unburied sins and confession, and Dimmesdale has a worried look on his face. Dimmesdale tries to keep himself covered up as if he has his own confession that he has been hiding all along. Chillingworth asked Dimmesdale about it, and Dimmesdale gets angry, and Chillingworth leaves suspicious. One night, while Dimmesdale is asleep, Chillingworth unbuttons his shirt and looks at his chest. He finds something that he is excited to have found, but the narrator keeps what he has found a mystery.

Chapters 11-12

The doctor keeps taunting poor Mr. Dimmesdale to get revenge on him. Locked in a closet, Mr. Dimmesdale sits and whips himself with a bloody scourge for his sin. He also fasts and stays awake, holding vigils. He holds one of his vigils on the scaffold where Hester confessed her sin. Screaming aloud, he grasps his chest due to the pain. He is afraid he will be heard, but only a few people hear. He lets out a laugh when he thinks about what could happen if somebody hears him, and he hears another laugh. To his surprise, it comes from Hester and Pearl. He asks the two to join them up on the scaffold, and when they do, they join hands. Pearl looks up and asks Dimmesdale if he will do the same thing the next day at noon, and he replies that when it is time, he will. The three look up and see a meteor shooting through the sky. The meteor seems to be in the shape of an "A". When they see the meteor, Pearl looks out to see Chillingworth. Chillingworth takes Dimmesdale and leads him back home. The next day, the Sexton found Dimmesdale's black glove on the scaffold and says Satan must have put it there. As well as finding the glove, he points out that they all interpreted the "A" in the sky as meaning angel because of Governor Winthrop's death the previous night.

Chapters 13-14

Pearl is now seven years old, and Hester is starting to be accepted as a person instead of a criminal to her town. She brings food to people, nurses the ill, and help people when they're in trouble. Yet when she does all of these nice deeds for her town, she always leaves without getting any sort of recognition. She wants to do out of the goodness of her heart. Hester thinks that it is partially her fault that Dimmesdale is punishing himself as he does by hiding Chillingworth's identity. One day, Hester goes to Chillingworth to make him stop tormenting the poor minister. He tells her that the judges are considering to remove the letter from her, but she says you cant remove it by human authority. She explains to him that the secret needs to be revealed. Chillingworth seems upsset with what he has become from how he used to be. The two continue to argue, and Hester simply tells him to go back to how he used to be.

Chapters 15-16

When Hester goes to find Pearl, she finds her playing on the shore with the letter "A" on her chest in seaweed. Hester asks Pearl what the "A" means, and Pearl replies that it's the same reason why Dimmesdale always grabs his chest. Pearl doesn't fully understand what the "A" means, and Hester thinks she is too young to know. Therefore, she doesnt go into great detail. As time passes, Pearl still continues to ask her mother what it means. One day, Hester decides that it would only be right to tell Dimmesdale about Chillngworth if they were alone. As Hester and Pearl are waiting on Dimmesdale by the brook, Pearl asks Hester about the Black Man. Hester tells young Pearl that she received the letter from the Black Man. When Pearl sees Dimmesdale, she asks her mother if it is the Black Man. Hester tells her that it is the minister, and Pearl asks if the Black Man has left a letter on Dimmesdale because of how he holds his chest. Hester, wanting privacy, hurries off Pearl so her and Dimmesdale can chat.

"Hills Like White Elephants"

"Hills Like White Elephants" is about a couple that is arguing about an operation that the girl is contemplating, which is an abortion. The couple is at a train station, having a few drinks, and the woman says to the man that the hills look like white elephants. The man says that if she goes through with the operation, they would be alright and happy again, just like they were before. The woman is very confused on what to do and tells the man that if she has the abortion, their lives wouldn't be the same. They continue to talk and say things that back up how they both feel about the abortion and consider each other's points. She is upset about the whole situation, and the man tries to soothe her. He asks her how she feels, and she replies that nothing is wrong to avoid talking about it anymore.

"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber"

"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is about a man that tries to overcome his fears while on a safari in Africa. His wife, Margaret, and their guide, Robert Wilson, see a lion close to their camp one day. Wilson decides that they should go after it and try to kill it. When they get close to it, Macomber shoots it but is unable to kill it. The lion runs in the brush to hide, but the three think they need to kill it. When they approach the hidden lion, the lion sees them and goes after them. Macomber runs for his life, and his wife, Maraget, sees him. She considers him a coward for running from the lion. Since Wilson didn't run, she goes and sleeps with him that night. The next day, the three go hunting for buffalo. Macomber kills two buffalo and injures another on this hunt and is left ecstatic at the fact that he has overcome his fears. Unlike hunting for the lion, when a buffalo chases after him this time, he stands still and shoots at the buffalo but misses. Margaret picks up Macomber's extra gun and shoots him, and instead of killing the buffalo, she kills Francis. Margaret tries to explain to Wilson that it is an accident, but Wilson knows otherwise. He keeps taunting Margaret, and she keeps telling him to stop. When she finally says, "Please stop," he stops and says, "That's much better. I will stop now."

"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"

"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," written by Ernest Hemingway, is about a lonely, deaf old man that just wants somewhere to keep him satisfied. His niece is the only one he has, and when he attempts to commit suicide, she is able to miraculously stop him. The old man drinks at a small cafe every night, and he stays there until he is done drinking, which is always very late. The younger waiter complains to the older waiter about the man being there so late. The older waiter is more understanding of the man's situation. He says that the old man has nowhere to go, and the cafe is a good place for him. The old man asks for one more drink, and the younger waiter refuses and leaves to go home to his wife.

"A Day's Wait"

In "A Day's Wait," a young boy is very ill with a fever. When the doctor comes to check him out, he tells the boy that his fever has gone up to one hundred and two degrees. This worries the young boy, and he tells his father that he didn't have to stay by his side if it was going to bother him. Telling him this, the boy confuses his father. The father keeps telling the boy to go back to sleep, but the boy insists on staying awake.
Later that day, the father goes out hunting for quail. Shooting only two and missing five, he calls it a day. He leaves satisfied because he realizes that there are many quail left for hunting on another day.
While the father is gone, the boy doesn't let anyone in his room because he is afraid that his family will catch what he has. The father takes the boy's temperature when he gets back to the house, and it is still one hundred and two degrees, just like the doctor had said. The boy suddenly becomes more worried than before and doesn't see how his medicine could possibly help him anymore. He asks his father how long it is going to be before he dies because the kids in France said that you can't live with a temperature of fourty-four degrees. The father tells him that there is a huge difference in the thermometers, and the boy is relieved.