History Literature / TheScarletLetter

* NewEnglandPuritan: This trope naturally shows up, as the novel explores Puritan society and it's harsh treatment of those who they believe don't live up to their ideals.

* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: {{Zigzagged}} between these opposites. Hester is made an social outcast for her son of adultery, but she's not executed instead because with her husband missing for years she was virtually a widow and the judges understand that a young and lonely woman can be easily tempted. On the other side, her husband does not hold it against her for the aforementioned reason, and because they were a mismatched couple.

No, not the little red "x" that means a picture link is broken. Nothing to do with the Administrivia/PermanentRedLinkClub, either.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: See above.

* GoodAdulteryBadAdulteryBadAdultery: {{Zigzagged}} between these opposites. Hester is made an social outcast for her son of adultery, but she's not executed instead because with her husband missing for years she was virtually a widow and the judges understand that a young and lonely woman can be easily tempted. On the other side, her husband does not hold it against her for the aforementioned reason, and because they were a mismatched couple.

* AffairBlameTheBastard: Defied. While Chillingworth wants revenge for the affair, he makes it clear that he won't be going after Pearl, since it wasn't her fault for being the result of it.

%%* CannotSpitItOut

* HeroicBastard: Pearl.

* NoNameGiven: Our narrator who finds the manuscript has no name, but he's basically an AuthorAvatar of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who heavily based "The Custom House" on his time working in said establishment.

* ProlongedPrologue: "The Custom House". Taking up about a quarter of the book, this account details the narrator's finding of the manuscript and a long-winded description of his job and coworkers at the Custom House, as well as his thoughts on transcendentalism and the nature of sin. [[FanonDiscontinuity Most readers just skip it.]]

* NoNameGiven: Our narrator who finds the manuscript has no name, but he's basically author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who heavily based "The Custom House" on his time working in said establishment.

* NeverLiveItDown: InUniverse, this is the point of the scarlet "A" Hester has to wear and the "A" seared onto Dimmesdale's chest.

* AuthorVocabularyCalendar: "Ignominy," "ignominious".

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: A particularly blatant example. The antagonist Chillingworth does objectively good things: he gains great medical knowledge from the Indians at considerable personal risk and uses it for the benefit of the community. When Chillingworth comes home to see his wife (and indirectly himself) publicly shamed, he comforts Hester, medicates her and her daughter and mostly blames himself for his wife's infidelity. He helps Dimmesdale medically and emotionally by correctly insisting that Dimmesdale will never fully recover until he relieves himself of whatever is weighing his heart. Despite these good acts, the Puritans of Boston seem ungrateful for having a man who has put so much effort into becoming a great doctor for them and seem to interpret everything he does in the worst possible light. Everyone, including the narrator and Chillingworth himself, assumes that he is doing everything for the very worst of reasons. Just to hammer in his badness the narrator makes Chillingworth ugly, and uglier as the story goes on. Protagonist Dimmesdale on the other hand does objectively bad things by impregnating Hester so she is exposed to public shame and causing her a great deal of guilt and then letting Hester take all the blame and all responsibility for the child. He is extremely hypocritical in participating with the public shaming of Hester, even pretending to try to make her give away the name of her lover. He neither has the courage to confess and face the consequences, nor to take his secret to the grave. Choosing the most cowardly possible solution he waits until he only has seconds left to live to confess. Yet he obviously has the sympathy of the narrator, Hester and all of Boston.

It's 17th-century Puritan Massachusetts. Life is difficult to eke out in a strange and hostile New World. Among a community that adheres to a strict faith, Hester Prynne, a young Englishwoman sent to the colonies ahead of her much older husband (whose whereabouts are unknown), has had a child out of wedlock. Released from prison two months after the shameful birth, she refuses to disclose the name of the child's father. As punishment, the Puritans sentence her to wear a [[TitleDrop scarlet letter]] on her breast: '''[[color:#ff2400:A]]''', for adulteress, while standing on a scaffold in the town square for one hour. After the hour is up, however, Hester continues to wear the scarlet letter and chooses to live a kind of hermetic existence on the fringe of the community, long after the rest of the townspeople have come to admire her and are prepared to welcome her back into the community.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Hester is established in her first scene as a very un-Puritan free spirit, wearing a white dress as opposed to the black Puritan garb, chasing a bird around.

%%* {{Disneyfication}}: The movie.

%%* {{Yandere}}: Chillingworth

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* ProlongedPrologue: "The Custom House". Taking up about a quarter of the book, this account details the narrator's finding of the manuscript and a long-winded description of his job and coworkers at the Custom House, as well as his thoughts on transcendentalism and the nature of sin. [[FanonDiscontinuity Most readers of the book just skip it.]]

%%* TheColonialPeriod: See page description.

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Chillingworth was separated from Hester for a very long time, and she figured he was dead, falling into the arms (and bed) of Rev. Dimmesdale. It turns out she was wrong; her husband is very much alive...and [[GreenEyedMonster jealous and vengeful]]. (He generously forgives her, even stating that it mostly his own fault. Her lover is a completely different matter.)

* AntiVillain: Chillingworth. While he wants revenge, he also has used his knowledge of medicine for benefit of the people, forgives Hester, heals her and her child in the prison and then saves Dimmesdale's life. However, he attacks Dimmesdale to torture him as a revenge.

* AuthorVocabularyCalendar: "Ignominy," "ignominious"

* BeardOfEvil: Roger Chillingworth's long beard is emphasized and he is seeking revenge.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Played with. Hester is at her most beautiful when she's at her best spiritually. The ugliest of the [[GossipyHens gossipy women]] is the most merciless. Dimmesdale becomes less and less healthy, and thus less beautiful, as he descends into madness. Chillingworth is ugly at the start, and becomes hideous by the end.

* CaptainObvious: "The moment when a man's head drops off is seldom, or never, I am inclined to think, precisely the most agreeable of his life.

* {{Forgiveness}}: Chillingworth forgives Hester even saying that it is mostly his own fault. Her accomplice, however, is a completely different matter...

* TheHeroDies: Hester dies at the ending.
* HeroicBastard: Pearl

* IgnoredEpiphany: At one point, Chillingworth has a moment of realization as how low he's sunk in his quest for vengeance. He keeps going.

* ParentsAsPeople: Plenty of scholars pointed out that Hester was capable of boarding a ship away from the Puritan society and maybe find Pearl a much loving environment, though her strange spiritual obligation to stay near her Puritan village (and lover) is a bit self-serving. Though she does her best taking care of Pearl and creating a loving environment within her home, even if society shuns them
* ThePenance: Dimmesdale punishes himself with [[ATasteOfTheLash whippings]], fastings and vigils.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: A particularly blatant example. The antagonist Chillingworth does objectively good things: He gains great medical knowledge from the indians at considerable personal risk and uses it for the benefit of the community. When Chillingworth comes home to see his wife (and indirectly himself) publicly shamed, he comforts Hester, medicates her and her daughter and mostly blames himself for his wife's infidelity. He helps Dimmesdale medically and emotionally by correctly insisting that Dimmesdale will never fully recover until he relieves himself of whatever is weighing his heart. Despite these good acts, the Puritans of Boston seem ungrateful for having a man who has put so much effort into becoming a great doctor for them and seem to interpret everything he does in the worst possible light. Everyone, including the narrator and Chillingworth himself assumes that he is doing everything for the very worst of reasons. Just to hammer in his badness the narrator makes Chillingworth ugly and uglier as the story goes on. Protagonist Dimmesdale on the other hand does objectively bad things by impregnating Hester so she is exposed to public shame and causing her a great deal of guilt and then letting Hester take all the blame and all responsibility for the child. He is extremely hypocritcal in participating in the public shaming of Hester, even pretending to try to make her give away the name of her lover. He neither has the courage to confess and face the consequences, nor to take his secret to the grave. Choosing the most cowardly possible solution he waits until he only has seconds left to live to confess. Yet he obviously has the sympathy of the narrator, Hester and all of Boston.

* ReformedButRejected: Double subversion. Hester ''does'' regain the respect of the community by continuously being charitable and a hard worker in spite of her sin, so much so the magistrate urged her to remove the scarlet "A," which she had been under no obligation to keep wearing anyway. Even so, Hester feels that society shouldn't claim her back and that she must find her own way of dealing with her sin.
* SlutShaming: Hester is being discriminated by the people because of her adultery.

* BeardOfEvil: Roger Chillingworth has a beard and is seeking revenge.

%%* BurnTheWitch

* CrazyJealousGuy: Roger Chillingworth isn't too happy to learn about his wife's infidelity.

* DoubleStandard: Examined -- Hester takes the rap for committing adultery as Dimmesdale stands free, but not from his conscience. After all, signs of adultery were... more visible in a woman.
** Bear in mind that the townspeople want Hester to tell them who fathered Pearl, both so that Pearl can know who her father is and so he can share in Hester's punishment. Dimmesdale goes so far as to say that her lover probably wants her to name him and would come forward on his own but is too afraid; he is of course completely correct about that.

No, not the little red "x" that means a picture link is broken.

* GenteelPoverty: Hester's family in England is this.