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Who is Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter?

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A son of Salem — Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestors in Salem, Massachusetts, were Puritans named Hathorne. He added a w to his name when he began writing.

Hester Prynne is the ennobled, self-reliant protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter.12

Set in a Puritan village in New England, the story follows Hester after she bears a child out of wedlock. As punishment for adultery, she is forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her dress. Although initially scorned, Hester displays great dignity and compassion, eventually silencing many of her critics.2

Hester is not truly repentant for her actions, as she believes her love for the child's father, the minister Arthur Dimmesdale, consecrated their union. While her husband, Roger Chillingworth, is consumed by a vengeful obsession and Dimmesdale is destroyed by his own guilt, Hester emerges as a resilient figure. She ultimately faces the future with bravery, eventually returning to New England to live out her days, where she is later buried beside Dimmesdale.2