About this story
You play Hester Prynne, carrying your infant daughter into the marketplace with the red letter you embroidered yourself — gold-edged, which several of them take as an insult. The walk ends at the scaffold and three hours of exposure. Among the ministers above, a young man with a pale hand on the rail asks the town for mercy. Then Reverend Wilson asks for a name.
Who you’ll meet
Arthur Dimmesdale, the young minister at the meetinghouse rail whose name is the one being asked for, with old Reverend Wilson beside him putting the question to the square below.
How it opens
Morning gathered a dark-clothed crowd before the timber door of Boston's prison.
Beside its ironwork, one wild rosebush held color against mud and weathered oak.
Goodwife OneThe magistrates have sentenced too gently for an offense so plain.
Goodwife TwoLet the mark speak before any neighbor adds another sentence.
BeadleStand clear; the prisoner comes into the marketplace now.
Choose
I can walk without being pulled.
Do not press the child between us.