Secrets of the Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered by many to be the greatest achievement of an author acclaimed as the master of the American short story. It is set in Salem, Massachusetts. In this tightly controlled Puritan city, the inhabitants live under harsh laws and fierce prejudices. Hester Prynne, a young wife whose husband is presumed dead, is publicly humiliated for the sin of adultery. The proof of his sin is his little girl Pearl. He hides the identity of Pearl's father to protect him from the harsh judgment of Puritan law. However she is condemned to spend the rest of her life marked as an adulteress by wearing a scarlet "A" on her chest. Hester's husband has meanwhile arrived in the colony and has begun to practice as a doctor. He makes Hester promise that she will not reveal her identity to anyone. The book covers a period of seven years during which the identity of the father is known. He is the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, renowned as a particularly holy and pious man. Destroyed by guilt, he begins to show external signs of a serious illness. Hester's husband, under an assumed name, Roger Chillingworth, moves in and begins caring for Dimmesdale. Chillingworth soon discovers that the reverend is Pearl's father. Dimmesdale however thinks Chillingworth is simply a doctor. Chillingworth uses his influence to multiply guilt in the minister while trying to keep him physically healthy, as a form of emotional torture. At the climax of the story, Dimmesdale confesses and dies. Hester and Pearl leave the colony. Chillingworth, whose only goal was to get revenge on Dimmesdale, suddenly finds his life aimless and dies within a year. Hawthorne used the book's settings, not only to develop the story, but to make a statement about Puritan society through the use of allegory. The Puritans were a people dedicated to perfecting themselves according to a certain set of values ​​that were uniquely Puritan. On an individual level a Puritan will seek to achieve perfection by living this set of values. If they were unsuccessful, as in the case of Hester or Arthur Dimmesdale, their punishment would be that they did not live up to the perfection they aspired to. The prison, in The Scarlet Letter, is proof that Salem is a society that strives for self-perfection, not just individuals dedicated to perfecting themselves.