A crowd of people gathers outside the door of a prison in Salem, Massachusetts. This was one of the first buildings the Puritans constructed after founding the colony, and the door, which is made of oak and iron, “seem[s] never to have known a youthful era” (45). A rose bush growing on one side of the door interrupts the otherwise dreary scene and purportedly marks the place where Ann Hutchinson stepped while being led to prison. The narrator offers a rose to the reader “to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow” (46).

The people in the crowd discuss the prisoner—Hester Prynne—whose punishment they’ve gathered to witness. The women judge Hester particularly harshly, saying that for the crime of adultery, the magistrates ought to have branded her forehead or even executed her. Only one young mother urges her fellow women to show compassion for the suffering Hester’s guilt must cause her.

The beadle emerges from the prison, followed closely by Hester, who is carrying her infant daughter and wearing a scarlet letter A on the bodice of her dress. Hester is tall, dark-haired, and strikingly beautiful, and responds to the crowd “with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile” (50).