The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter, written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is about a Puritan society in Massachusetts. The theme of this novel is largely sin, and how the guilty parties were not equally treated for the same sin or exposed for the wrong that they had done in the eyes of God. Hawthorne describes deception, the withholding of the truth, and secrecy in the development of the plot and characters in the novel. Hawthorne …
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…noted that it represents two time periods: Puritan New England and Hawthorne's time. The novel touches readers today as well, as people continue to struggle with the humiliation and consequences from sin. Works Cited Gussman, Deborah. "Inalienable rights: Fictions of political identity in Hobomok and The Scarlet Letter." College Literature June 1995: 58-81. Literary Classics of the United States. Hawthorne Novels. New York: Viking Press, 1983. Stewart, Randall. Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961.