The Scarlet Letter: The Meaning of the Letter Adultery has been around almost as long as people. He maintained a harsh punishment, from exile to death, but in the Puritan world of colonial America (c. 1620 to 1640), his punishment may have been worse than both. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a lonely Puritan woman who commits infidelity with a preacher and has a child from a mendacious union. To punish her for this act, the council of leaders forces her to wear a large "A" on her chest, to let everyone know what she has done. She is not put to death immediately because her husband is missing and may or may not be alive. The letter "A" has different meanings to different people in the book. For Hester, the townspeople, and Pearl the letter "A" takes on various meanings throughout the book. Puritan dictate requires Hester Prynne to wear the "A" as long as she lives in the village. Hester believes the letter to be a sign of ignominy. While on the gallows at the beginning of the story, he feels intense embarrassment and shame at having to wear the letter in public. He even slips into a fake reality before returning to the shame of the letter. “He looked down at the scarlet letter and even touched it with his finger, to make sure that the child and the shame were real. YES! - these were his realities".(57) This is the first and least intense feeling he has for the letter. The “A” was intended to produce a deep sense of shame and dishonor, to deter other possible sinners. He understands what the "A" is for and sticks with that philosophy for a while. Her shame excludes her from society and normal life. S...... middle of paper ...... even today, with the suffering and pain that human beings inflict on each other. Hawthorne beautifully put together this masterpiece over two hundred years after the time in which it occurred. Hester Prynne didn't let shame get in the way of loyalty or love, and that's the greatest victory of all. Works cited and consulted Baym, Nina. Introduction. The Scarlet Letter. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York City: Penguin Books USA, Inc. 1986. Durst Johnson, Claudia. Understanding the Scarlet Letter. Westport, Ct: Greenwood, 1995.Fryer, Judith. "Hester Prynne: The Dark Lady as "Deviant"." Main literary characters. New York, 1990. 107-115. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. 1850. New York: The Modern Library, 2000.Sewall, Richard B. “The Scarlet Letter: Criticism.” Novels for students. Ed. Diane Telgen. vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 2001. 319-27.