Who is the protagonist  of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter" who may have been inspired by a settler in colonial Boston who was brought to trial after the death of her child?
Hester Prynne
Title: Rita K. Gollin
Passage: Rita K. Gollin was born on January 22, 1928 in Brooklyn, NY.  She attended Queens College for undergraduate studies before earning her Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota in 1961.  Gollin is Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at the State University of New York at Geneseo.  Gollin is a scholar of the life and works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, on whom she has authored several books and many articles.  Her 1979 book, "Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Truth of Dreams", published by the Louisiana State University Press, is consistently included on Hawthorne bibliographies.  Her later publications pursued visual-textual studies, focusing on the iconography of Hawthorne portraiture, and a biography of Hawthorne's publisher's wife, "Annie Adams Fields, Woman of Letters."  Gollin has also edited scholarly editions of Hawthorne's best-known novel, "The Scarlet Letter".  Her awards and services include NEH grants, and Presidencies of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society and of the Northeast MLA.
Title: Elizabeth Pain
Passage: Elizabeth Pain (c. 1652 – 26 November 1704), 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 found guilty of negligence, fined, and flogged.  According to some writers and by popular tradition, aspects of Pain's life and her gravestone are considered an inspiration for the life and grave of character Hester Prynne in the novel "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Title: Hester Prynne
Passage: Hester Prynne is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter".  She is portrayed as a woman condemned by her Puritan neighbors.  The character has been called "among the first and most important female protagonists in American literature".
Hester Prynne Elizabeth Pain