Hester emerges from prison carrying Pearl and wearing the embroidered scarlet letter A on the front of her dress.

Standing on the scaffold, Hester recognizes her estranged husband among the crowd watching her public punishment.

Chillingworth visits Hester in prison that evening, treats her and Pearl with medicine, and vows to secretly find her lover.

Chillingworth befriends the ailing Reverend Dimmesdale and moves into his lodgings under the pretense of treating his mysterious illness.

While Dimmesdale sleeps, Chillingworth pushes aside the minister's shirt and sees something that fills him with horror and dark triumph.

Dimmesdale secretly mounts the town scaffold at night to perform a private penance, but no one witnesses his guilt.

Hester and Pearl join Dimmesdale on the midnight scaffold as a meteor streaks across the sky in the shape of a letter A.

Hester meets Chillingworth on the beach and begs him to stop his secret psychological torment of Dimmesdale.

Hester tells Chillingworth directly that she intends to reveal his true identity to Dimmesdale.

In the forest, Hester reveals to Dimmesdale that the physician living with him is actually her estranged husband.

Hester unpins the scarlet letter and lets her hair down in the forest as she and Dimmesdale agree to sail for Bristol.

The ship's captain casually informs Hester that Chillingworth has also arranged passage on their planned escape vessel.

A visibly weakened Dimmesdale asks Hester to help him climb the scaffold in front of the assembled Election Day crowd.

Dimmesdale publicly confesses his adultery, tears open his shirt to reveal a branded letter A on his chest, and dies.

Hester returns to Salem as an old woman, continues voluntarily wearing the letter, and is eventually buried beside Dimmesdale.

Hester Prynne is publicly shamed for adultery and forced to wear a scarlet letter A, while unknowingly spotting her estranged husband Chillingworth in the watching crowd. Chillingworth dedicates himself to secretly tormenting Hester's unnamed lover — the minister Arthur Dimmesdale — while posing as his physician and moving into his home. As Dimmesdale's health collapses under hidden guilt, Hester intervenes by confronting Chillingworth and then revealing his true identity to Dimmesdale during a secret meeting in the forest. The two lovers plan to flee to Bristol together, but Chillingworth outmaneuvers them by booking passage on the same ship. In a final act of courage, Dimmesdale mounts the public scaffold before the Election Day crowd, confesses his guilt, and dies in Hester's arms. Hester lives on in Salem for years, voluntarily wearing the letter, and is eventually buried beside Dimmesdale.

The headline events of sin, guilt, and public confession.

While sorting old papers at the Custom House, Hawthorne discovers a faded scarlet letter A and notes about a woman named Hester Prynne.

Women gathered outside the prison argue that Hester deserves a far harsher punishment than public humiliation on the scaffold.

Hester stands on the scaffold in the public marketplace for three hours, enduring the silent judgment of the assembled crowd.

Although she is free to leave Salem, Hester chooses to remain in the town where her great sin and suffering occurred.

Hester takes up residence in an isolated coastal cottage and supports herself and Pearl entirely through her skill as a seamstress.

When questioned at Governor Bellingham's mansion, Pearl playfully claims she was plucked from a rose bush rather than born of parents.

Dimmesdale argues passionately on Hester's behalf, persuading Governor Bellingham to leave Pearl in her mother's care.

Chillingworth becomes convinced that Dimmesdale's physical deterioration stems from a guilty spiritual secret rather than any bodily disease.

Unable to relieve his guilt through prayer, Dimmesdale resorts to fasting, all-night vigils, and self-flagellation with a scourge.

A sexton returns Dimmesdale's glove found at the scaffold; townspeople interpret the previous night's letter A in the sky as standing for Angel.

Salem's attitude toward Hester gradually shifts, with many reinterpreting the scarlet A as standing for able because of her charity.

Pearl fashions a letter A from seaweed on the beach and connects her mother's mark to Dimmesdale's habit of clutching his chest.

After returning from the forest meeting, Dimmesdale firmly dismisses Chillingworth as his physician and refuses any further treatment.

Dimmesdale delivers his most celebrated sermon honoring Election Day before emerging from the church looking gravely ill.

Chillingworth dies within a year of Dimmesdale and leaves the bulk of his estate to Pearl.

The story opens with Hawthorne's discovery of a faded scarlet letter in the Custom House, before shifting to the full weight of Hester's public punishment and her quiet decision to remain in Salem despite her freedom to leave. Hester builds a modest life as a seamstress while raising Pearl, and nearly loses custody of her daughter before Dimmesdale unexpectedly speaks on her behalf. Meanwhile, Chillingworth methodically closes in on Dimmesdale's secret as Dimmesdale's desperate attempts at private self-punishment — fasting, vigils, self-flagellation — all fail to ease his guilt. Small but telling moments accumulate over the years: a returned glove misread by townsfolk, a seaweed letter fashioned by Pearl, and a gradual shift in Salem's opinion of Hester from sinner to symbol of strength. Dimmesdale delivers the greatest sermon of his career on Election Day just before his final collapse, and Chillingworth dies shortly afterward, leaving his fortune to Pearl.

The supporting moments that build Hester and Dimmesdale's world.

Dimmesdale urges Hester on the scaffold to name her lover, but she adamantly refuses to betray him to the crowd.

Governor Bellingham declares his intention to remove Pearl from Hester's custody, believing separation would benefit both mother and child.

Mistress Hibbins invites Hester to attend a witches' gathering in the forest, but Hester refuses, citing her need to care for Pearl.

While passing the window of Chillingworth's study, Pearl hurls a prickly burr at Dimmesdale as if sensing something hidden between them.

Dimmesdale's growing fame as a beloved minister deepens his torment rather than relieving it, locking him in ever-worse hypocrisy.

By the light of the meteor, Dimmesdale clearly sees the malevolence in Chillingworth's expression for the first time and is terrified.

Pearl asks Dimmesdale to stand openly with her and Hester on the scaffold the following day, and he sadly refuses.

Hester resolves to confront Chillingworth directly after witnessing how severely his hidden influence has damaged Dimmesdale's health and spirit.

Hester lies to Pearl on the beach, claiming the scarlet letter is simply an ornament she wears for decoration.

Walking through the forest with Pearl, Hester admits she once met the Black Man and that the scarlet letter is his mark.

Dimmesdale confesses to Hester in the forest that he envies her, because her public punishment spared her from living as a hidden hypocrite.

Dimmesdale initially rages at Hester for concealing Chillingworth's identity but eventually grants her his full and heartfelt forgiveness.

Pearl refuses to cross the forest brook to join her parents until Hester reattaches the scarlet letter to her dress.

Walking back through Salem after the forest meeting, Dimmesdale feels sudden powerful urges to speak blasphemies and commit petty cruelties.

As Dimmesdale lies dying on the scaffold, Pearl weeps over him for the first time and her strange otherworldly qualities fade away.

From Hester's refusal to betray her lover on the scaffold to Pearl's uncanny awareness of her parents' secrets, this pool traces the moral crossroads and quiet revelations that define the novel's inner life. Early turning points — the custody crisis over Pearl, Mistress Hibbins's witchcraft invitation, and Dimmesdale's recognition of Chillingworth's malevolence — establish a world where hidden truths are always pressing toward the surface. Hester's conflicted handling of those truths — lying to Pearl about the letter, admitting it is the Black Man's mark, then finally confronting Chillingworth — exposes the impossible position she has long occupied. The forest meeting is crowded with emotional reversals: Dimmesdale's envy of Hester's public shame, his rage and then forgiveness, and Pearl's insistence at the brook-side that the scarlet letter be reclaimed. The pool closes with Dimmesdale's death on the scaffold, where Pearl's tears finally dissolve her strange, otherworldly nature and make her fully human.