The Scarlet Letter: Character Profiles

Hester Prynne: A beautiful puritan woman full of strong passions, Hester Prynne is the main character in the story.  Employed as the village seamstress, she is strong and caring, helping anyone she can when he or she are in need.  With a penitent heart, Hester travels through the story becoming only a shadow of her former passionate loving self.  Other than the scarlet letter, she was a very moral woman whose only joy in life was her daughter Pearl. 
Roger Chillingsworth: The missing husband of Hester Prynne.  He shows up the day that Hester is put on public display and does not show himself as her husband.  A scholar and a man of medicine, his soul purpose in his life becomes revenge against the man who helped his wife sin.  By the end of the story, he is shown to be an evil character. 
Pearl: Looked on as the devil's child, Pearl is the only one in the story that is purely innocent.  She is passionate, intelligent, and energetic.  Pearl is in touch with nature and with her mother's feelings.  Ever since she was born, Pearl had a fascination with the scarlet letter that is a constant reminder for Hester of her sin.
Arthur Dimmesdale: The minister of the town that the people adore, Arthur was the secret lover of Hester Prynne.  He was a sickly man who took his sin very seriously.  He spent the seven years since his indiscretion with Mistress Prynne trying to repent.  He wore down his body with his penitence and his sin ate away his soul.  In the end, he frees himself from his guilt by admitting to everyone his sin.