The Scarlet Letter, is a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne published in 1850 and considered his cumbre.1 play is set in Puritan New England in the early seventeenth century and tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman accused of adultery and condemned to wear on your chest letter 'a' adulterous. Hester refuses to reveal the identity of the father of her daughter, and tries to live with dignity in an unjust and hypocritical society. Hawthorne's novel addresses the issues of legalism, sin and guilt. In June 1642, in the puritanical city of Boston, a crowd gathers to witness the punishment of Hester Prynne, a young woman convicted of adultery and sentenced to wear a scarlet "A" for adulteress in her dress to her embarrassment. The sentence forced to remain for three hours in the pillory exposed to public humiliation. Despite pressure to confess name the father of her daughter, Hester refuses. Hester's husband, who had long disappeared at sea, appears in time to witness the punishment and learn about the adultery of his wife. Enraged, is passed by the physician Roger Chillingworth to try to find the lover of his wife.