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Much of the plot of the novel concerns Hester’s struggle with her sense of guilt concerning her adultery. She is first betrayed by her husband for sleeping with her lover and then lies to her daughters about her life and her feelings.

A handbill announcing a special reading group meeting of The Scarlet Letter on November 3 in Boston. Regarded as the first public reading of The Scarlet Letter by a woman, the event was organized by the Northeastern Book Alliance and featured women in literature including Hester Prynne, who read the first two chapters. It was a great success, however, the volunteers had to choose carefully: many of the women in the audience were pregnant or nursing.

What readers remember most about Hester and Arthur Prynne is their illicit affair: Hester’s hopeless isolation, Pynne’s adultery, and the obsession Chillingworth has with this adulterous couple.

Hester Prynne was sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the Massachusetts state prison at Charlestown. She was sent to jail on May 13, -16, 1730, under a sentence of two years for adultery. After Hester’s imprisonment, the first edition of the novel was published. To publicize the book, it was printed in the two leading New England newspapers, the Boston Gazette and the Boston News-Letter, and then was read aloud in the town sessions to audiences that included all the townsfolk, the ministers and the lawyers.

Hester Prynne is condemned by Reverend Dimmesdale, who is concerned that public knowledge of her sin will destroy her husband’s reputation and social position and will destroy her hope of achieving a happy life. For him, Hester’s promise to tell the truth when she is asked and her continued refusal to do so is proof of her moral corruption.