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Set in seventeenth-century Boston, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is abotu consquences of hidden and open sin. Hester Prynne commits adultery against her husband with Arthur Dimmesdale, a young clergyman. As part of her punishment, Hester is required t ....

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.... also her emblem of suffering (Martin 114). Baym also states that knowing what the letter means is what the novel is all about (86). The red "A" clearly stands for adultery. Puritan society sees the "A" as a symbol of guilt, Hester's infraction of their moral code (HArt 95). Hester is given the punishment of wearing the letter instead of being put to death because she is young and comes from a prominent family. However, the pain and heartache that the "A" brings to her is far worse than being excuted. Children learn to detest Hester because shee wears the symbol of the moral outcast (Abel 171). The "A" is a sing of the community's ownership of ....