The Scarlett Letter is a book about the topics Redemption, Punishment, and Sin of the human heart in many different conflicts. Around the 1600 to the 1700’s whenever you committed a sin such as adultery you would have to stitch a letter representing the specific crime that you committed to every piece of clothing you owned. Adultery for example would be the letter A. That showed everyone what sin or crime you committed. Removing the stitching or running away such as Hester Prynne did showed the entire society that it was a mark of shame and she wanted to escape from it.
I do not believe this book is a realistic portrayal or even close to actually have happened in history but it is just written from Hawthorne’s opinion from history he gathered from that time period.
The reason being is because Hawthorne was born after this time period in Salem, Massachusetts and there is a possibility that something may have happened but by the time he grew up and heard some of these historical facts they were twisted and changed into different stories.
The setting of the story is really important to the theme of the book because around this time as well is when the Salem witch trials occurred and in comparison to Jamestown mainly because Jamestown was still being colonized and growing as a colony.
Physical components of the setting help the events occur because of where Salem is. Its located in a forest where many conflicts took place in the book as well as