The Scarlet Letter is a novel that is set in Salem, Massachusetts, the Puritan New England of the seventeenth century.

The book begins by explaining that Hester Prynne has committed adultery and has a child with a man that is not her husband. Hester will not tell who the father of this child (Pearl) is. As a punishment for her sin, she must stand on a scaffold and receive the insults of the people for three hours and she must wear a scarlet "A" on her bosom for the rest of her life as a symbol for her sin.

Hester was sent before her husband to Massachusetts. Her husband, never made it to Massachusetts and was assumed dead on the Pacific. Hester found out this was not true when she saw her husband standing in the crowd watching her on the scaffold. Later, Hester's husband (Roger Chillingworth) visits her in jail. Roger apologizes that he was late but explains that he was captured by Indians and h

eld captive. He convinces Hester not to reveal that he is her long lost husband, but swear that he will find and seek revenge on the father of this baby.

corruption before his congregation.

- Swisher, Clarice ed. Readings On Nathaniel Hawthorne. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996.

Hawthorne's work takes his American Puritan past as its subject. The Puritans were a group of religious reformers who arrived in Massachusetts in the 1630s under the leadership of John Winthrop (whose death is recounted in the novel). Hawthorne's connection with the subject is related to the sense of guilt he felt about his ancestors and their parts in the witch trials and persecution of the Quakers.

Some topics in this essay:
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