The story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and The Scarlet Letter “A” on her breast. A man in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester’s husband, a scholar much older than she is, sent her ahead to America, but he never arrived in Boston. The story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and The Scarlet Letter “A” on her breast. A man in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester’s husband, a scholar much older than she is, sent her ahead to America, but he never arrived in Boston. Several years pass. Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but, with the help of Arthur Dimondale, a young and eloquent minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay together. Dimondale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. Chilling worth attaches himself to the ailing minister and eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with round-the-clock care. Chilling worth also suspects that there may be a connection between the minister’s torments and Hester’s secret, and he begins to test Dimondale to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, chilling worth discovers a mark on the man’s breast, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct.
Many years later, Chilling worth died and Hester returns alone, still wearing The Scarlet Letter, to live in her old cottage and resume her charitable work. She receives occasional letters from Pearl, who has married a European aristocrat and established a family of her own. When Hester dies, she is buried next to Dimondale. The two share a single tombstone, which bears a scarlet “A”.

III. Social Background of the Novel
    
The Scarlet Letter expresses the aspects of relationships, religion, community, discipline and punishment in the puritan community of 17th century Boston. Relationships between men and women were very constrained and that is what made adultery such a bad sin in the eyes of everyone in the community. Religion seemed to govern over all, people would look up to reverends and the community believed that fate was their destiny. Public discipline and punishment were used to discourage everyone else from committing the same crime or sin as the offending “criminal” did. The community was to follow the beliefs of god and to do their duties the best they could, yet were there to criticize and punish all who disobeyed the religion or laws. In 17th century every thing was very strict and everyone was expected to follow the laws in Boston, which makes Hester’s sin such an excellent example of the beliefs of that period. The first scaffold scene is very important because the scene sums up the beliefs of the general public at that time, and gives a prospective of what Hester must deal with. In the beginning of chapter two the scene is described as “it could have betokened nothing short of the anticipated execution of some noted culprit” (Hawthorne 71) showing that the whole town was there for a ruthless public punishment. The crowd was not there for an execution though, but for a public punishment of Hester who had committed adultery. A townsman describes Hester’s punishment to a stranger as, “they have doomed Mistress Prynne to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then thereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom” (58). This scene shows the weight of values and morals upon society in the 17th century and how public punishment was not only used as punishment but as a way to discourage others from committing the same crime (Duan 45). Since religion was such a key part of their lives, anyone who did disobey their god was looked down upon. 《红字》中主人公性格分析(2):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_5395.html