The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published May 16, 1850, is about a Puritan society in the 1600’s. Puritans are against all forms of earthly pleasure, such as, sex, music, dancing, flowers, etc. Hawthorne is obsessed with puritanism because his uncle, John Hathorne, was a judge during the Salem Witch Trials, which took place in another puritan society. The Scarlet Letter is about a woman named Hester Prynne, who had a baby named Pearl after committing adultery against her husband Roger Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth is her former husband who is angry at the 2 adulterers and would like revenge. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, the man she committed adultery with, are continuously followed and tortured by Roger Chillingworth…show more content… Hawthorne explains this quote because Hester was released from prison and she was heading to live somewhere other than the heart of the city. Hawthorne writes, “on the outskirts of town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any habitation, there was a small thatched cottage.” (Hawthorne 74). Hawthorne uses this quote because the cabin is right outside of the city, which is pure, but also on the outskirts of the forest, which is evil. She is living in a puritan-purgatory. As we read further into the story, Hawthorne writes about the children “creeping” closer and closer to Hester's cabin to watch her work and then run away scared by the scarlet letter. Hawthorne writes “Children… would creep nigh enough to behold her plying her needle at the cottage - window, or standing in the doorway, or laboring in her little garden; or coming forth along the pathway that led townward; and discerning the scarlet letter on her breast would scamper off with strange, contagious fear.” (Hawthorne 75). This proves the good children would always go to the cabin where sinful Hester was working and would run away after seeing the scarlet letter. The cabin is in between the forest, which is evil, and the city, which is bad, where Hester works alone and the children are scared
