1、The young woman was tall and perfectly shaped. She had long dark hair which shone in the sunlight, and a beautiful face with deep black eyes. She walked like a lady, and those who had expected her to appear sad and ashamed were surprised how her beauty shone out through her misfortune. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　2、‘But what else could I expect? You wear your scarlet letter openly, on your bosom, Hester. Mine burns in secret! It is good, after these seven years, to talk to someone who knows the truth. If I had one friend – or even an enemy – whom I could talk to openly each day, then perhaps it would save me. But now it is all lies ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　3、‘It would be better,’ said one hard-faced woman of fifty, ‘if we good, sensible, church-going women could judge this Hester Prynne. And would we give her the same light punishment that the magistrates give her? No!’ ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　4、Roger Chillingworth stared at the tall, proud woman in front of him, and heard the pain in her voice. Did he then remember the love he had once felt for her?
‘I am sorry for you,’ he said. ‘You were a good person, and you needed a better love than mine.’ ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　5、‘And never will, my child, I hope,’ said Hester. ‘Now, run away and catch the sunshine.’
Pearl ran off, and Hester smiled when she saw that her child had found a circle of sunshine between the trees. But when Hester came near to it, Pearl said, ‘It will go now.’ ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　6、‘It is done!’ whispered the priest, covering his face with his hands. ‘The whole town will wake up and find me here.’
But the people of the town did not wake up, or if they did, they imagined the cry was something which came from their dreams. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　7、The young priest had large, sad brown eyes, and lips that trembled as he spoke. He seemed shy and sensitive, and his face had a fearful, half-frightened look. But when he spoke, his simple words and sweet voice went straight to people’s hearts and often brought tears to their eyes. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　8、More than once, Mr Dimmesdale prepared himself to speak to his people about the black secret of his soul. More than once he stood in front of them in church, took a deep breath, and told them … what? He told them he was the worst of sinners, hateful, dishonest, unclean, an evil thing in the sight of God. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　9、It was midnight, and the town was asleep. Clouds covered the sky, and Mr Dimmesdale could stand there until morning without fear of discovery. Why, then, was he here? What had made him come? Guilt? Shame? He did not know. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　10、But on the outside he was still a friend, kindly and smiling. Arthur Dimmesdale could feel something evil watching him, but he did not know what it was. He looked with doubt and fear – at times even with hate – at the figure of the old doctor; then he would punish himself for these unkind thoughts ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　11、‘I can’t do it!’ answered the priest. ‘I cannot walk away and leave my work. Although my own soul is lost, I must do what I can for the other human souls in my care.’
‘After seven years of misery, you must leave it all behind you!’ said Hester, with passion in her voice. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　12、She used whatever time she had left to make clothes for the poor people of the town, although she got no thanks for it. And indeed, she found no kindness anywhere. The Puritans of that time were hard judges, and a woman who had sinned as Hester had sinned was always an outsider. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　13、One sleepless summer night, seven years from the time when Hester stood in public shame on the scaffold, the priest sat up suddenly in his chair. An idea had come to him.
‘There might be a moment’s peace in it,’ he said to himself, and softly went down the stairs and out into the night. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　14、‘Hester Prynne,’ he said. ‘If you think it will bring peace to your soul, and will bring you closer to the path to heaven, speak out the name of the man! Do not be silent because you feel sorry for him. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　15、‘God, will you forgive me?’ he thought.
‘You will go,’ said Hester, calmly, as he looked at her.
And so it was decided. At once, a strange feeling of happiness came over him; something which he had thought was dead in him. 
‘Oh, Hester, God has been merciful!’ he cried. ‘This is already a better life. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　16、Is the world so small, then?’ said Hester, looking into his eyes. ‘Is there nothing beyond this little town? Walk a few miles from here, and the yellow leaves will show no sign of a white man’s feet. There you can be free! A short journey will take you from a world where you have been miserable ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　17、They were country women, and the bright morning sun shone down on strong shoulders and wide skirts, and on round, red faces. Many of them had been born in England, and had crossed the sea twenty years before, with the first families who came to build the town of Boston in New England. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　18、‘There was a look of pain in her face which it hurt me to see, but I think it must be better for sinners to be free to show their pain, as this poor woman Hester does, than to cover it all up in their heart.’ ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　19、But God has given her a job to do, which will keep her soul alive and save her from further sin. She must love and care for the child, and teach it the ways of God, to know good from evil, right from wrong. And, with God’s great mercy, if she brings the child to heaven, then the child also will bring its mother there! ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　20、‘From the graveyard,’ answered the other man. ‘I found them growing on a grave without a gravestone, or anything to tell me the dead man’s name. Perhaps these black plants grew out of a heart that hid some terrible secret, one that was buried with him.’ ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　21、As she stood there, feeling every eye upon her, she felt she wanted to scream and throw herself off the platform, or else go mad at once. Pictures from the past came and went inside her head ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　22、On that June morning, in the middle years of the seventeenth century, the prison in Boston was still a new building. But it already looked old, and was a dark, ugly place, surrounded by rough grass. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　23、The trees were tall and close together, and the path through them was dark and narrow under a grey sky.
‘Mother,’ said little Pearl, ‘the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself because it is afraid of something on your bosom. But it will not run away from me ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　24、Hester Prynne accepted her punishment bravely. She walked up the wooden steps to the platform, and turned to face the stares of the crowd.
A thousand eyes fixed on her, looking at the scarlet letter on her bosom. ----Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　25、‘I have thought of death,’ she said. ‘I have wished for it, and even prayed for it, but if death is in this cup, then I ask you to think again before I drink it.’ ----Nathaniel Hawthorne