Hester is the main Character in this story, she is the protagonist and the book is named after the Scarlet "A" she wears upon her chest. Hester had been sent to America before her husband in order to prepare a home for them. However, while she was in America she had an affair with a Puritan Minister. Hester is forced to wear this "A" as a punishment for her sin of adultery against her husband. The story revolves around this adultery and the child produced because of it.

Hester is a very passionate and strong woman, she is able to withstand years of shame and guilt because she loves the Puritan minister and does not wish to cause him any harm by revealing him as the child’s father. Hester also shows great intelligence when she speculates about human nature, social organizations and moral questions.

Hester is portrayed as a very motherly figure, both to her illegitimate child and to the woman of the community. Women came to her for shelter from sexism. It is also mentioned in the novel that Hester is a very talented Seamstress.

Reverend Dimmesdale is a young but well respected man of the church. During a time of weakness he falls in love with Hester Prynne and they have an illegitimate child together. Reverend Dimmesdale does not come forward and admitted to being the father of the child though and because of it Hester has to hold all the guilt on her shoulders. However he deals with his guilt by physically and psychologically tormenting himself, and as a result he develops a heart condition.

Reverend Dimmesdale is a very emotional and yet intelligent man, it is these quality that make him such a respected man of the church. However throughout the course of the story we see that he is struggling with his feelings of sinfulness and his inner need to confess.

Roger Chillingworth is the name that Hester’s husband took to disguise himself upon his arrival to America. He is much older than Hester and when he arrives in America he finds Hester and her illegitimate child on display, it is for this reason that he takes this fake name, to hide his association with this scorned upon woman. He can be seen as the antagonist as he causes Reverend Dimmesdale's inner conflict to become more painful and he also causes internal pain and suffering for Hester (when she is forced to quietly watch as the love of her life goes through pain and suffering due to their secret.)

Roger Chillingworth is a very self-absorbed character and in his anger over the illegitimate child he decides to stay in America to get revenge on Hester and Reverend Dimmesdale.

Roger Chillingworth is a scholar and uses his knowledge to disguise himself as a doctor, under this disguise he is able to discover and get very close to Pearl's Father, Reverend Dimmesdale. He uses this closeness to get revenge by tormenting Reverend Dimmesdale.

Pearl Prynne is the illegitimate child of Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale. Pearl is a moody, mischievous young girl with an ability to understand things that other can not. Pearl was able to figure out the truth about her mother and her father and their feelings for each other, far before the townspeople had realized that Reverend Dimmesdale was Pearls' father.

Before the townspeople find out the truth about Pearl's Father they feared that Pearl was not totally human because of her unique behaviors and they believed that the Devil might actually be her father.

During the course of the story it is often mentioned that Pearl played with the Scarlet letter that was set on her mother chest, as well playing with the idea of having a scarlet letter on her own chest (this is ironic as Pearl was the reason for the scarlet letter).