The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)

The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman in 17th century Puritan New England who has an affair with a local minister and becomes pregnant.

Hester is publicly humiliated, sentenced to wear the scarlet letter "A" on her chest as a sign of her adultery, and ostracized by her community.

The novel follows Hester's struggles to reconcile her own moral beliefs and desires with the harsh Puritan world around her.

Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, is a physician who arrives in town to seek revenge for her infidelity and the identity of her secret lover.

The novel also follows the moral journey of the minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, who is Hester's lover, who is wracked with guilt for his part in the affair.

The novel is framed by a narrator who introduces his story with a reference to the Puritan community's harsh moral judgments and its tendency to view sin as a public matter.

Throughout the novel, the narrator explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt, as well as the role of women in Puritan society.

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