Hester Prynne is the adulteress, forced by the Puritan community to wear a scarlet letter A on the breast of her gown. Roger Chillingsworth, Hester's husband, revenges himself with calculating assaults on the frail mental state of the man he believes to have wronged him. The result is an American tragedy of stark power and emotional depth that has mesmerized critics and readers for nearly a century and a half.