Hester Prynne
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Hester Prynne is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter. She is portrayed as a woman condemned by her Puritan neighbors for having a child out of wedlock. The character
"Hester Prynne & Pearl before the stocks", an illustration by Mary Hallock Foote from an 1878 edition of The Scarlet Letter
Elizabeth Pain
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Elizabeth Pain, sometimes spelled Elizabeth Paine or Elisabeth Payne, was a settler in colonial Boston who was brought to trial after the death of her child. She was acquitted of the murder charge but
Hester Prynne
…because we as a culture are still trying to figure out who Hester really is and how we feel about her. According to popular tradition, the gravestone of Elizabeth Pain in Boston's King's Chapel Burying Ground was the inspiration for Hester Prynne's grave. Scholar Laurie Rozakis has argued that an alternate or additional…
Elizabeth Pain's gravestone in King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts