Literature Analysis Number 3:

The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne


The Scarlet Letter is set in a Puritan settlement in Boston in the 17TH century. A woman commits adultery, gives birth to a bastard child and is forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her chest as a punishment and a sign of shame. The setting is very important to the understanding of the novel because adultery was a very shameful crime for the time and place. The woman and her daughter and shunned from the surrounding population and as a result, the woman works as a struggling seamstress. 


One of the many themes of the novel is the idea of sin. Everyone's idea of what they define as a sin is different depending on religion and even lack of religion. The idea of what a sin was during the time period and in the setting of the novel was very strict and unforgiving. While adultery is not a nice act to commit, it is not as frowned upon in modern day and isn't really thought of as a sin. 


The tone of the novel is very serious and even a bit depressing.
1.  “Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom.


2. Children have always a sympathy in the agitations of those connected with them; always, especially, a sense of any trouble or impending revolution, of whatever kind, in domestic circumstances; and...


3. "If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow...