Chapter 1: The Prison Door Chapter 2: The Market Place These two chapters set the opening scene: 17th-century America, one June morning, Boston, a city in the Massachusetts Bay Colony where religion is the foundation for both law and society. The first chapter ends on the image of a rosebush and the writer suggests one of its blooms can "symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow." On this stage, Hester Prynne emerges from the dark prison door to make her way to the scaffold where she will be publicly condemned. Holding a baby, she makes her way proudly through a crowd of scornful onlookers who are surprised at the brilliant letter "A" embroidered in gold thread on her chest. As she walks, she recalls her past: born to a house of "antique gentility" in Europe, married to a physically "misshapen" scholar, taken first by her husband to Amsterdam and then sent to America. She cannot believe that she is really suffering such shame. She never imagined that she would be the mother of an illegitimate child, made to wear a public token of her sin, and subject to the town's humiliation.Chapter 3: The RecognitionChapter 4: The Interview Summary In the crowd, Hester spots the husband who sent her to America and never fulfilled his promise to follow her. Though he is dressed in a strange hodge-podge of traditional clothing and native dress, she is struck by his wise countenance and recognizes his slightly deformed shoulders. The narrator also introduces us to the town fathers who sit in judgment on Hester: Governor Bellingham, Reverend Wilson, and Reverend Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale, much beloved for his eloquence, religious fervor, and soulful sermons, asks Hester to announce the name of her co-sinner. When she refuses, he delivers a powerful sermon on sin and dwells upon the meaning of the symbol on Hester's chest. In Chapter 4, Hester comes fac...
