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6
Introduction
• The Scarlet Letter told a story of a puritan woman Hester Prynne who was punished to wear a scarlet A which stood for the crime of adultery. The pretty young lady tried to settle down in Boston with her old and ugly husband Chillinggworth, a scholar. But the latter did not appear for years. During this time, Hester committed adultery with a local Minster Dimmesdale, and gave birth to a girl Pearl. Facing the terrible punishment, Hester refused to give her lover’s name away to protect him. Years later, the husband Chillinggworth came to the town and found out the whole truth, and he operated an horror revenge on Dimmesdale, with hiding his own true name. Yet, as the story going, Hester and Dimmesdale became sympathetic figures, while Chillinggworth was a devil at last.