The Scarlet Letter
*The Scarlet Letter* is an 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, set in Puritan Massachusetts.
The title refers to the red letter "A" that Hester Prynne is forced to wear as punishment for adultery.
The phrase has come to mean any visible mark of shame or public stigma: Bankruptcy felt like a scarlet letter on his record.
- PuritanEnglish Protestant simplifier
- sinViolation of divine law
- guilty conscienceSelf-blame for wrongdoing
- scaffoldTemporary elevated work structure
- public shamingCommunal reputational punishment
Nathaniel Hawthorne · pearl · colonial America · New England · shame · fallen woman · Massachusetts Bay Colony · American Renaissance · hypocrisy · moral complexity · Hester · psychological depth · allegory · adultery · Hester Prynne · fictional town · American Gothic · Moby Dick
- Classic BooksPride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Moby Dick, Moby-Dick, Great Expectations
- School ClassicsTo Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet
- American ClassicsMoby-Dick, Moby Dick, Walden, Leaves of Grass, Little Women
- American LiteratureThe Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Moby-Dick, Moby Dick, Grapes of Wrath
- American BooksTo Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Catch-22, Walden, Uncle Tom's Cabin
- HawthorneHester Prynne, Pearl, Wakefield, Zenobia, Miriam
The Scarlet LetterLes Misérables
Paradise Lost · Crime and Punishment · Eat Pray Love · Lady Chatterley's Lover · Fear of Flying
The Scarlet LetterFear of Flying
Anxiety about air travel
Lady Chatterley's Lover · The Awakening · Sex and the City · The Vagina Monologues
scarlet, letter, letters, lettered, lettering, letterer, literal, literary, literate