The Scarlet Letter

The scene is 17th century Boston. Beautiful, darkhaired Hester Prynne, the heroine, gives birth to an illegitimate child. Persecuted by the church and the puritanical townspeople she is placed on trial for adultery. Proud, strong, intensely loyal, she defiantly refuses to name the father of the child. Her infuriated persecutors condemn her to a lifetime of public ridicule by forcing her to sew a scarlet letter "A" on the bosom of all her clothes. The father is eventually found out and the t...