The Scarlet Letter Review

The Scarlet Letter was published by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850.  The novel is set in mid-17th century Massachusetts Bay Colony, and it follows Hester Prynne and her lover over the course of seven years.  After graduating college Nathaniel Hawthorne(author) found a job at the Custom House and was fired in 1849.  Shortly thereafter, his mother died.  He then decided to write a novel.  


During that time Massachusetts was governed by Puritans, religious men and women who settled at Plymouth Rock, founded Boston, and began the experiment that grew into the United States of America.  At the heart of this novel is the concept of man’s relationship to himself and to a Christian God. Hawthorne sets his novel in a deeply religious time, and, thus, the language of the novel and the themes invoked contain deeply religious undertones.