The Scarlet Letter

Hester Prynne

Also known as Mistress Prynne · Madam Hester

A condemned woman who lives in isolation with her daughter Pearl, whom she raises alone. After years away, Hester returns to New England and freely resumes wearing the scarlet letter; she spends the rest of her life offering counsel to women in distress.

Hester’s infant daughter

Also known as the child · the baby · babe · Pearl · little Pearl

Hester and Dimmesdale’s daughter, once vivid, willful, and curious. Chillingworth leaves her a substantial inheritance; the passage reports the belief that she survived, married, remained happy, and remembered her mother, though her fate is not confirmed.

Arthur Dimmesdale

Also known as Reverend Master Dimmesdale · Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale · Brother Dimmesdale · young pastor · young clergyman · the young minister · young divine

A minister and Hester’s secret lover, tormented by guilt and Chillingworth’s revenge. After confessing his sin at the scaffold, he dies in Hester’s arms; witnesses disagree over whether his breast bore a scarlet letter and whether he acknowledged their shared guilt.

Roger Chillingworth

Also known as Master Prynne · the learned man · old Roger Chillingworth · the physician · the scholar · the man of skill · the leech · the old doctor

Hester’s older, deformed former husband, who concealed his identity as a physician and deliberately tormented Dimmesdale. He dies within a year of Dimmesdale and leaves his substantial property in England and New England to Pearl.

Governor Bellingham

The colonial governor and magistrate, present in the Election Day procession. He and John Wilson serve as executors of Chillingworth’s will.

John Wilson

Also known as Reverend Master Wilson · Mr. Wilson · Reverend Mr. Wilson · Father Wilson

Boston’s eldest clergyman and Dimmesdale’s senior colleague. He and Governor Bellingham serve as executors of Chillingworth’s will.

Jonathan Pue

Also known as Mr. Surveyor Pue · Surveyor Pue · ancient Surveyor · ghost of Mr. Surveyor Pue

A former Surveyor of the King’s Customs at Salem, appointed by Governor Shirley. His papers recorded Hester Prynne’s life, and he later investigated her story; he believed Pearl survived, married, and remained devoted to her mother.

Children near Hester’s cottage

Also known as some children

Unnamed children playing near Hester’s abandoned seaside cottage who see a tall woman enter it; the woman is later identified as Hester returning.

Hester’s daughter’s husband

Also known as Pearl’s husband

An unnamed person in the unknown land where Pearl is believed to have made a home. The passage says Pearl was likely married and happy but does not identify her spouse.

Hester’s visitors

Also known as women who came to Hester’s cottage

Unidentified women who seek Hester’s counsel about sorrow, rejection, and troubled or unreturned love.

Satan

Also known as the Devil · Black Man · the fiend · the great enemy of souls · the Evil One · Prince of the Air

A supernatural figure associated with evil and temptation. Mistress Hibbins claims Dimmesdale has been to the forest and warns that Satan will expose the mark he hides; Pearl repeats that Hibbins calls her of his lineage.

Mistress Hibbins

Also known as old Mistress Hibbins · Governor Bellingham’s sister · the witch-lady · old witch-lady · old hag

Governor Bellingham’s sister, reputed to be a witch who consorts with Satan and is later executed. She hints that Dimmesdale has visited the forest, claims to recognize Hester’s mark, and tells Pearl that she will someday see her father.

Apostle Eliot

Also known as the Apostle Eliot

A missionary among Indigenous converts whom Dimmesdale says he visited in the forest.

Master Brackett

Also known as jailer

The jailer who recognizes Pearl as the baby he once saw and nods to her in the market-place.

Hester’s dead husband

Also known as dead husband

An unnamed deceased husband remembered by the elderly widow of Dimmesdale’s congregation.

Elderly church widow

Also known as good widow · old church-member · old dame · good grandam · aged sister

A pious, elderly, widowed member of Dimmesdale’s church whose faith has sustained her through the deaths of her husband, children, and friends. She seeks spiritual comfort from Dimmesdale, who cannot later remember what he whispered to her.

Deacon

Also known as excellent and hoary-bearded deacon · good old man · sanctified old patriarchal deacon

An unnamed elderly church deacon who speaks with Dimmesdale on the street. Dimmesdale struggles to suppress blasphemous thoughts during their conversation.

Dimmesdale’s deceased children

Also known as dead children

Unidentified children of the elderly church widow, remembered as having died.

Dimmesdale’s dead friends

Also known as dead friends of long ago

Unidentified deceased friends of the elderly church widow, whom she remembers alongside her dead family.

Young convert

Also known as youngest sister · maiden newly won · poor young girl · young sister

An unnamed young woman newly converted by one of Dimmesdale’s sermons, who holds him in deep religious affection. He avoids her when tempted to corrupt her faith, and she spends the next morning distressed by what she takes to be his rudeness.

Little Puritan children

Also known as knot of little Puritan children

A group of unnamed young children playing in the street, whom Dimmesdale is tempted to teach wicked words.

Drunken seaman

Also known as tarry blackguard · seaman

An unnamed drunken sailor from the ship that has arrived from the Spanish Main. Dimmesdale is tempted to join him in drinking, jests, and profanity.

Bristol shipmaster

Also known as shipmaster · commander of the Bristol ship · commander of the questionable vessel

The flamboyantly dressed commander of the ship bound for Bristol. He tells Hester that Chillingworth plans to travel with her and Dimmesdale, and asks Pearl to carry Hester a message.

Ship’s crew from the Spanish Main

Also known as mariners · sailors · seafaring men · nautical brotherhood

A group of rough sailors aboard the ship bound for Bristol, suspected of depredations on Spanish commerce. They come ashore for Election Day, and one sailor gives Pearl the gold chain from his hat.

Ship’s surgeon

Also known as ship surgeon

An unnamed surgeon aboard the Bristol ship, mentioned by its commander.

Indian party

Also known as Indians · forest settlers

A group of Indigenous people from settlements around the colony, present in the market-place on Election Day in traditional dress and carrying weapons.

Blacksmith

Also known as the blacksmith

An unnamed townsman whom Pearl recognizes in his clean clothes at the holiday gathering.

Hester’s compassionate matron acquaintance

Also known as youngest and only compassionate among them

An unnamed woman who was the youngest and only compassionate member of the group of matrons that watched Hester leave prison. Hester later made her burial robe.

Hard-featured dame

An unnamed woman in the crowd who argued that Hester should have been judged more harshly.

Second condemning matron

An unnamed woman in the crowd who said Dimmesdale was distressed by the scandal in his congregation.

Autumnal matron

An unnamed older woman in the crowd who called the magistrates too merciful and said Hester should have been branded on the forehead.

Young wife with a child

An unnamed young woman in the crowd who said Hester’s shame would remain in her heart even if she covered the letter.

Pitiless female judge

An unnamed woman in the crowd who demanded Hester’s death and said her sin had shamed all women.

Town-beadle

Also known as beadle

An unnamed town official who enforces the law. During the holiday, he stops a sword exhibition on the pillory platform.

New Governor

Also known as new man

The unnamed governor who is to receive office on Election Day.

Bradstreet

One of the early colonial magistrates in the Election Day procession.

Endicott

One of the early colonial magistrates in the Election Day procession.

Dudley

One of the early colonial magistrates in the Election Day procession.

Increase Mather

A successful priest cited as an example of a clergyman who could attain political power.

Ann Turner

Also known as Ann Turner, her especial friend

A woman who taught Mistress Hibbins the secret of the famous yellow starch. She was hanged for Sir Thomas Overbury’s murder.

Sir Thomas Overbury

A man whose murder led to Ann Turner’s execution.

Aged dame by the sickbed

Also known as old dame in the chimney-corner

An unnamed elderly woman who tells Pearl the local story of the Black Man and claims that Mistress Hibbins is among those he has marked.

Indian converts

Unidentified Indigenous people among whom Apostle Eliot works and whom Dimmesdale has gone to visit.

Little gray bird

An unnamed shorebird with a white breast that Pearl believes she has hit with a pebble. Pearl stops throwing stones because she is saddened by the possibility of having hurt it.

Partridge

A partridge in the forest that runs toward Pearl with its brood, then clucks to reassure its young.

Squirrel

A squirrel in the forest that chatters at Pearl and drops a partly gnawed nut on her head.

Fox

A fox startled from sleep by Pearl’s footsteps; it watches her before deciding whether to leave or remain.

Wolf

A wolf said to have approached Pearl and offered its head to be patted; the narrator casts doubt on this part of the tale.

Isaac Johnson

An early settler of Boston whose grave became the nucleus of the old churchyard at King’s Chapel. Pearl dances on a tombstone that may be his.

Aged London craftsman

Also known as aged handicraftsman

An unnamed elderly man who once lived in London and claims to have seen Chillingworth, under another name, with Doctor Forman around the time of Sir Thomas Overbury’s murder.

Doctor Forman

Also known as the famous old conjurer

A famous old conjurer whom an aged London craftsman claims to have seen with Chillingworth in connection with the Overbury affair.

Indian priests

Also known as savage priests

Unidentified Indigenous spiritual leaders whom some townspeople claim Chillingworth joined in incantations during his captivity.

Governor Winthrop

Also known as the worshipful Governor Winthrop · departed Governor

A colonial governor who dies during the night of Dimmesdale’s vigil. Hester has been watching at his deathbed and making his burial robe; Wilson prays beside him, and the sexton interprets the meteor’s red A as a sign of his becoming an angel.

Gray-bearded sexton

Also known as old sexton

An unnamed church sexton who finds Dimmesdale’s black glove on the scaffold and reports that the town interpreted a red A in the sky as a sign of Governor Winthrop’s death and heavenly ascent.

Dimmesdale’s father

Also known as his white-bearded father

Dimmesdale’s deceased father, who appears in the minister’s visions with a saintly frown.

Dimmesdale’s mother

Also known as his mother · ghost of a mother

Dimmesdale’s deceased mother, who appears in his visions turning her face away from him.

Dying man

Also known as some dying man

An unnamed man whose deathbed Wilson visits on the night of Dimmesdale’s vigil.

Bond-servant

Also known as Governor Bellingham’s bond-servant

An unnamed free-born Englishman held in seven-year servitude by Governor Bellingham. He answers the door when Hester and Pearl arrive at the governor’s house.

Pious widow

Also known as good widow

An unnamed widow of good social standing whose house lodges Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. She assigns Dimmesdale a sunny front room while the physician sets up his study and laboratory elsewhere in the house.

Aged deacon and apothecary

An unnamed elderly Boston apothecary whose piety and religious conduct had served as the town’s main reassurance about medical care before Chillingworth arrived.

Surgeon and barber

Also known as only surgeon

An unnamed Boston surgeon who combines occasional surgical work with the daily practice of shaving.

Sir Kenelm Digby

A celebrated scientific figure whom Chillingworth says he knew as a correspondent or associate.

Reverend Mr. Blackstone

Also known as Blackstone · first settler of the peninsula

The first settler of the peninsula, whose apple trees are said to have descendants in Governor Bellingham’s garden. Early accounts portray him riding on a bull.

Martin Luther

Also known as Luther

A religious reformer mentioned in a rumor that attributed his birth to demonic parentage; the text notes that Pearl was assigned a similar origin by some Puritans.

King James

Also known as old King James

The English king whose time Governor Bellingham recalls from his youth, when he enjoyed attending court masks.

Francis Bacon

Also known as Bacon

A legal thinker named by Governor Bellingham as one of the authorities he was accustomed to discuss.

Edward Coke

Also known as Coke

A legal authority named by Governor Bellingham among his professional associates.

William Noy

Also known as Noye

A legal authority named by Governor Bellingham among his professional associates.

John Finch

Also known as Finch

A legal authority named by Governor Bellingham among his professional associates.

David

The biblical king represented in the tapestry in Dimmesdale’s room, in scenes from the story of David and Bathsheba.

Bathsheba

A biblical figure depicted with David in the tapestry hanging in Dimmesdale’s room.

Nathan the Prophet

Also known as Nathan

The biblical prophet depicted in the tapestry in Dimmesdale’s room, in the story of David and Bathsheba.

General Taylor

Elected President during the third year of the narrator’s Surveyorship; his election brings a hostile administration and the narrator’s dismissal.

Democratic brethren

The narrator’s fellow Democrats, whose chances of retaining Custom-House offices he compares with his own.

Whigs

The victorious party that takes office after General Taylor’s election and dismisses the narrator.

Irving’s Headless Horseman

A fictional figure from Irving’s work, used as a comparison for how the press portrayed the narrator after his dismissal.

Old Inspector

Also known as Permanent Inspector · old Inspector · father of the Custom-House · patriarch

An unnamed, exceptionally hale Custom-House Inspector around eighty years old, appointed by his father, a Revolutionary colonel and former port collector. The narrator recalls his cheerful temperament and vivid recollections of food; he was later killed by a horse.

Pingree

A Salem merchant whose name the narrator recalls from his former life at the Custom-House.

Phillips

A Salem merchant whose name the narrator recalls from his former life at the Custom-House.

Shepard

A Salem merchant whose name the narrator recalls from his former life at the Custom-House.

Upton

A Salem merchant whose name the narrator recalls from his former life at the Custom-House.

Kimball

A Salem merchant whose name the narrator recalls from his former life at the Custom-House.

Bertram

A Salem merchant whose name the narrator recalls from his former life at the Custom-House.

Hunt

A Salem merchant whose name the narrator recalls from his former life at the Custom-House.

Ann Hutchinson

A sainted woman who, according to a tradition mentioned by the narrator, may have planted the wild rose-bush beside the prison door as she entered it.

Man in the crowd

An unnamed onlooker who challenges the women’s harsh judgment of Hester and calls for them to be quiet as she leaves the prison.

Crowd townsman

An unnamed man standing beside Roger Chillingworth who explains Hester’s punishment and the mystery of her child’s father.

Four sergeants

Unnamed guards carrying halberds who attend Governor Bellingham at the public punishment.

Indian attendant

Also known as Indian

An unnamed Indigenous man who accompanies Roger Chillingworth to Boston and brings him there to be redeemed from captivity.

Hester’s father

Hester Prynne’s deceased father, remembered as a white-bearded man from a decayed but once-genteel family home in England.

Hester’s mother

Hester Prynne’s deceased mother, remembered for her anxious, loving concern, which still seems to guide her daughter.

P. P., Clerk of this Parish

A famous fictional clerk whose tone the narrator jokingly adopts when recounting the election of General Taylor.

Narrator

Also known as Surveyor · Locofoco Surveyor · author

The first-person narrator, a writer who serves as Surveyor of the Revenue at the Salem Custom-House and presents himself as editor of Hester Prynne’s story.

King Derby

Also known as old King Derby

A prominent Salem merchant whose name appears in the Custom-House records as a local magnate.

Billy Gray

Also known as old Billy Gray

A prominent Salem merchant mentioned among the magnates recorded in the Custom-House archives.

Simon Forrester

Also known as old Simon Forrester

A prominent Salem merchant mentioned among the magnates recorded in the Custom-House archives.

First ancestor

Also known as original Briton · earliest emigrant of my name · progenitor

The narrator’s earliest known family ancestor, who settled in Salem with a Bible and a sword. A soldier, legislator, judge, and church ruler, he was also a persecutor of Quakers.

Quaker woman

An unnamed woman of the Quaker sect whom the narrator’s first ancestor treated with harsh severity; the incident is preserved in Quaker histories.

Son of the first ancestor

The first ancestor’s son, who inherited his father’s persecuting spirit and was prominent in the persecution of people accused of witchcraft.

General Miller

Also known as Collector · gallant old General · old warrior

A distinguished New England soldier who served as Collector of the Salem Custom-House for more than twenty years and later became the narrator’s superior. Elderly and infirm, he is remembered for his integrity, benevolence, and military valor.

Revolutionary colonel

Also known as father of the Permanent Inspector

The Permanent Inspector’s father, a Revolutionary colonel and former collector of the port who created his son’s Custom-House position and appointed him to it.

Veteran shipmaster

Also known as story-teller

An unnamed Custom-House Inspector and veteran shipmaster whose remarkable storytelling often entertains the narrator.

Man of business

An unnamed Custom-House officer of exceptional ability, clarity, and integrity who organizes the office’s complex work and helps colleagues and merchants.

Governor Shirley

The governor who appointed Jonathan Pue Surveyor of the King’s Customs for Salem.

Naval Officer

An unnamed Custom-House officer who entered service with the narrator and left shortly afterward; he often discusses Napoleon and Shakespeare with him.

Collector’s junior clerk

An unnamed nineteen-year-old Custom-House clerk who is rumored to write poetry and occasionally discusses books with the narrator.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Also known as Emerson

A thinker whose intellect influenced the narrator during the narrator’s three years among the Brook Farm circle.

Ellery Channing

A poet and companion with whom the narrator recalls discussing fanciful ideas beside a fire on the Assabeth.

Henry David Thoreau

Also known as Thoreau

A writer with whom the narrator recalls talking about pine trees and Indigenous artifacts at Walden.

Hillard

A person whose classical refinement, encountered by the narrator, shaped the narrator’s tastes.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Also known as Longfellow

A poet whose hearth the narrator recalls visiting and whose poetic sensibility influenced him.

Amos Bronson Alcott

Also known as Alcott

A thinker whom the narrator mentions as a contrast to the Permanent Inspector’s earthy character.

Robert Burns

Also known as Burns

A poet mentioned as an example of a writer who also worked as a Custom-House officer.

Geoffrey Chaucer

Also known as Chaucer

A poet mentioned as an example of a writer who also worked as a Custom-House officer.

Elder Adams

An unnamed historical Adams whose era is used to date a memorable meal recalled by the Permanent Inspector.