Hester Prynne• A beautiful woman who wears the scarlet letter, which is a piece of cloth shaped like an "A". This indicates to members of Hester's community that she is an "adulteress." • She was married to Chillingworth who sent her to America to live with a promise to join her, but never kept. • “People say,” said another, “that the Rev. Master Dimmesdale, his pious pastor, takes it very much to heart that such a scandal should have befallen his congregation. (47) She had an affair with a Puritan minister named Dimmesdale who is well respected in the community, leading her to conceal her role in the affair. From this affair, she gave birth to Pearl which is only proof of her crime. • Hester is a strong woman who endures years of shame and torment from those around her. The fact that Hester is excluded from the community allows her to make observations about her community and see them as they are and not as they perceive them. • “She squeezed the child so violently against her breast that he cried out: she turned around, looked down at the scarlet letter and even touched it with her finger to make sure that the child and the shame were real . Yes, those were his realities – everything else was gone. (55) Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale • A young man who became famous in England as a theologian, then immigrated to America. • Despite his religious background and ties to the community, he and Hester became an object. Although he will not admit it publicly, he is the father of her child. • He does not handle his guilt well, which leads to heart problems which Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth, takes advantage of to take revenge. • Dimmesdale is an intelligent man. and emotional... in the middle of paper... the dark rigidity which petrified the bearded faces of these brave people would have augured horrible affairs in progress. (44) Tone • The tone at the beginning of the novel is quite nasty, but the progression of the novel becomes thoughtful and quite simple. There's also a little dose of irony just added here. Narrator • The beginning of The Scarlet Letter opens with the narrator's account of how the book came to be. The narrator remains anonymous and was the customs surveyor of Salem, Massachusetts. In the customs attic he discovered documents and among them was a manuscript with a piece of scarlet cloth embroidered with gold in the shape of an “A”. When the narrator lost his job, he decided to write a fictional account of the events he had read in the manuscript. The book about to be read is the narrator's final product.