Her punishment is that she must wear a scarlet "A" (for her sin of adultery) on her chest for the rest of her life. To make her sin worse, she refuses to name the baby’s father, which infuriates the town leaders even more. Therefore, in the Puritan town of Boston, Hester has committed a grave sin. Nevertheless, she is still technically married, and either way, she is not remarried to anyone else. Hester’s husband is thought to have been lost at sea since he left England two years ago and hasn’t been heard from since. The proof? Her three-month old baby, Pearl. The novel opens with a preface from the narrator, who tells the reader that while working in the Custom House in Salem, Massachusetts, he came across some documents that tell the story of Hester Prynne’s ordeal in the newly-settled Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. While transcendentalist authors like Emerson and Thoreau were exploring the possibilities of human nature and intuition, Hawthorne was exploring the limitations and potential destructiveness of the human spirit, rather than its possibilities. Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, The Scarlet Letter stands out from contemporary works. How can a single mistake define a person for the rest of his/her life?.What are the limitations and potential destructiveness of the human spirit throughout the novel?. How do goodness, revenge, and guilt manifest themselves in characters’ physiognomy?.Essential Questions for The Scarlet Letter
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