Sin, lust, adultery, guilt, hypocrisy, and damnation: one may not believe that these are just some of the themes of a book written in 1850. The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, includes all of these and more. The novel, which takes place in 1642 in Boston, Massachusetts, is a story about a young woman, Hester Prynne, who is found guilty of adultery. The story begins with Hester and her newborn child being led from the town …showed first 75 words of 2503 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2503 total…Letter; W.W. Norton and Co.; New York; 1988. Newberry, Frederick; "Tradition and Disinheritance in The Scarlet Letter; from ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance; reprinted by permission of the author; 1977. Fogle, Richard Harter; "Realms of Being and Dramatic Irony"; from Hawthorne's Fiction: The Light and the Dark; Norman: University of Oklahoma; 1952. Matthiessen, F.O.; "The Scarlet Letter"; from American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman; New York: Oxford UP; 1941.