The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Set in the harsh Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston, a tale of an adulterous entanglement that results in an illegitimate birth reveals the concerns with the tension between the public and the private selves. Publicly disgraced and ostracized, Hester Prynne draws on her inner strength and certainty of spirit to emerge as the first true heroine of American fiction. Arthur Dimmesdale, trapped by the rules of society, stands as a classic study of a self divided.

 Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. The Scarlet Letter was written in 1850 and is considered to be Hawthorne's greatest work

Printing History

Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

Ticknor, Reed & Fields 

1850

 The Films

1926

Cast

Directed by Victor Sjöström

Lillian Gish - Hester Prynne
Lars Hanson - The Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale
Henry B. Walthall - Roger Chillingworth
Karl Dane - Master Giles
William H. Tooker - The Governor
Marcelle Corday - Mistress Hibbins
Fred Herzog - The Jailer
Jules Cowles - The Beadle
Mary Hawes - Patience
Joyce Coad - Pearl

1934

Cast

Directed by Robert G. Vignola

Colleen Moore as Hester Prynne
Hardie Albright as Arthur Dimmesdale
Henry B. Walthall as Roger Chillingworth
Cora Sue Collins as Pearl
Alan Hale, Sr. as Bartholomew Hockings
Virginia Howell as Abigail Crakstone
William Kent as Sampson Goodfellow
William Farnum as Gov. Bellingham

1995

Cast

Directed by Roland Joffé

Demi Moore as Hester Prynne
Gary Oldman as Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale
Robert Duvall as Roger Chillingworth
Edward Hardwicke as John Bellingham
Robert Prosky as Horace Stonehall
Roy Dotrice as Rev. Thomas Cheever
Joan Plowright as Harriet Hibbons