The Scarlet Letter is an American silent drama film distributed by Fox Film Corporation and based upon the 1850 eponymous novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, with some additional plot added taking place before the events of the novel.
[3] The film used the novel's text to create subtitles, and in 1917 The Moving Picture World called it "as nearly flawless as it is humanly possible for it to be.
"[4] In old Puritan Boston some two hundred and fifty years ago, a girl was born.
Wilson and the Governor urge Hester to reveal the name of the child's father.
Hester is taken back to prison and the old man, Chillingworth, is admitted to her cell as a physician.
The heads of the colony seek to separate her from Hester and raise her under the church.
Regaining consciousness late in the night, the pastor runs into the square and mounts the pillory, crying out to the sleeping town.
Attracted by the tumult, Dimmesdale rushes into the square as Hester is being tied to the stake.
As he confesses himself the father of Pearl, he tears open his shirt and reveals an "A" seared on his chest.
She lifts his head into her lap; he opens his eyes, kisses Hester and Pearl and dies.