Nathaniel Hawthorne, born in Salem, Massachusetts, 1804, published The Scarlet Letter in1850. Since it was first published , The Scarlet Letter has never been out of print,nor out of favor with the literary critics. It is inevitably included in listings of the five or ten greatest American novels. Considered to be the best of Nathaniel Hawthorne"s writings, it may also be the most typical. The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne"s masterpiece and his most profound exploration of sin, alienation, and spiritual regeneration.(1.

             Buckner) In form it is a nearly perfect example of the static, pictorial design that Hawthorne"s dreamvision of the world demanded, given texture and solidity by the detailed representation of the Puritan-New England world of a hundred years before the.

             date of its writing that is the scene of the story.(2 Mizener) The novel traces the social, moral, psychological, and spiritual- of Hester Prynne"s adulterous relationship with the .

             Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale on four people: the lovers themselves, their daughter, Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, Hester"s husband.(1) Each of these characters: Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, have different characteristics that help depict the story"s plot.

             Hester Prynne is a beautiful young woman who has sinned but is forgiven.(5) As the representative of individuality, Hester, rather than subjecting herself to the law, subjects it to her own scrutiny; she takes herself as a law. She is not, by nature, rebellious; and during the seven-year period of The Scarlet Letter"s action, she certainly attempts to accept the judgment implicit in the letter. The native strength of her character is certainly.

             abetted by the fact that, as a young woman in a society dominated by aging men, she has no public importance. In fact, while the outward Hester performs deeds of mercy and kindness throughout the seven years, the inward Hester grows ever more alienated and.