The Scarlet Letter
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''This article is about the 1850 book. For films based on the book see [[The Scarlet Letter (film)]]''
{{distinguish|The Scarlet Letters}}
{{infobox Book | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
| name = The Scarlet Letter
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = [[Image:Title page for The Scarlet Letter.jpg|183px]]
| image_caption = Title page, first edition of ''The Scarlet Letter'', 1850
| author = [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = [[U.S.A.]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| series =
| genre = [[Novel]]
| publisher = [[Houghton Mifflin|Ticknor, Reed & Fields]]
| pub_date = [[1850 in literature|1850]]
| english_pub_date =
| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover]])
| pages =
| isbn =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
'''''The Scarlet Letter''''', published in 1850, is an American novel written by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] and is generally considered to be his ''[[magnum opus]]''. Set in 17th-century [[Puritan]] [[Boston]], it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth after committing [[adultery in literature|adultery]], refuses to name the father, and struggles to create a new life of [[repentance]] and dignity. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores questions of [[Divine grace|grace]], [[Legalism (theology)|legalism]], [[sin]] and [[guilt]].
==Preface==
[[Image:SalemMassCustomHouse1ty13531.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Salem Custom House]]The story of ''The Scarlet Letter'' is [[frame story|framed]] by a preface (called "The Custom-House") in which the narrator, a surveyor in the [[Custom House]], claims to have found documents and papers that substantiate the evidence concerning Prynne and her situation. The narrator says that when he touched the letter to his breast it gave off "burning embers...as if the letter were not of red cloth, but red hot iron." When the narrator lost his post, he decided to write a fictional account of the events recorded in the manuscript. ''The Scarlet Letter'' is the final product.
Historically, Nathaniel Hawthorne worked in the Custom House in [[Salem, Massachusetts]] for several years, eventually losing his job as a result of an administration change. There is no factual basis for the documents described in the book, however, and the preface is properly read as a literary device. Introductions that justify the fantastic content to come were a typical device in romance.<ref>Porte, Joel. ''The Romance in America: Studies in Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and James''. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1969. p. 98</ref>
==Plot==
[[Image:Matteson Scarlet Letter.jpg|right|thumb|250px|''The Scarlet Letter''. Painting by [[T. H. Matteson]]. This 1860 oil-on-canvas was made under Hawthorne's personal supervision.<ref name="Hawthorne">{{cite book
| title=Study Guide for The Scarlet Letter with Related Readings (Glencoe Literature Library)
| last=Hawthorne
| first=Nathaniel
| page=201
| authorlink=Nathaniel Hawthorne
| publisher=Glencoe Mcgraw Hill
| location=Woodland Hills, CA
| id=ISBN 0-02-817973-0 }}</ref>]]
The novel begins in 17th-century [[Boston, Massachusetts]], then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” on her bosom. The scarlet letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin – a [[badge of shame]] – for all to see. A woman in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester's husband, who is much older than she is, was sent ahead to America, but he never arrived in Boston. The consensus is that he has been lost at sea. While waiting for her husband, Hester has apparently had an affair, as she has given birth to a child. She will not reveal her lover’s identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her [[public humiliation|public shaming]], is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy. On this day Hester is led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she again refuses to identify her child’s father.<ref name="Hawthorne">{{cite book
| title=The Scarlet Letter
| last=Hawthorne
| first=Nathaniel
| authorlink=Nathaniel Hawthorne
| publisher=Dover Publications
| location=New York
| date=May 2, 1994
| edition=reissue
| id=ISBN 0-486-28048-9 }}</ref>
The elderly onlooker is Hester’s missing husband, who is now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He settles in Boston, intent on revenge. He reveals his true identity to no one but Hester, whom he has sworn to secrecy. Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and Pearl (her daughter) grows into a willful, impish child, who is more of a symbol than an actual character, said to be the scarlet letter come to life as both Hester's love and her punishment. Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but, with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, an eloquent minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. Chillingworth attaches himself to the ailing minister and eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with round-the-clock care. Chillingworth also suspects that there may be a connection between the minister’s torments and Hester’s secret, and he begins to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers an "A" (for adultery) on the man’s breast, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct.<ref name="Hawthorne"/>
Dimmesdale’s psychological anguish deepens, and he invents new tortures for himself. In the meantime, Hester’s charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. One night, when Pearl is about seven years old, she and her mother are returning home from a visit to a deathbed when they encounter Dimmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl join him, and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refuses Pearl’s request that he acknowledge her publicly the next day, and a meteor marks a dull red “A” in the night sky. It is interpreted by the townsfolk to mean ''Angel'', as a prominent figure in the community had died that night, but Dimmesdale sees it as meaning ''Adultery''. Hester can see that the minister’s condition is worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdale’s self-torment. Chillingworth refuses.<ref name="Hawthorne"/>
Hester arranges an encounter with Dimmesdale in the forest because she is aware that Chillingworth has probably guessed that she plans to reveal his identity to Dimmesdale. The former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. They will take a ship sailing from Boston in four days. Both feel a sense of release, and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. She is unnerved and expels a shriek until her mother points out the letter on the ground. Hester beckons Pearl to come to her, but Pearl will not go to her mother until Hester buttons the letter back onto her dress. Pearl then goes to her mother. Dimmesdale gives Pearl a kiss on the forehead, which Pearl immediately tries to wash off in the brook.
The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday and Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever. Meanwhile, Hester has learned that Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship. Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly, exposing the mark seared into the flesh of his chest. He falls dead just after Pearl kisses him.<ref name="Hawthorne"/>
Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resume her charitable work. She receives occasional letters from Pearl, who was rumored to have married an European aristocrat and established a family of her own. Pearl also inherits all of Chillingworth's money even though he knows she is not his daughter. There is a sense of liberation in her and the townspeople, especially the women, who had finally begun to forgive Hester of her tragic indiscretion. When Hester dies, she is buried in "a new grave near an old and sunken one, in that burial ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with[in] a space [set] between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both." The tombstone was decorated with a letter "A", and one tombstone was used for Hester and Dimmesdale.
==Major themes==
[[Image:Nathaniel Hawthorne.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]]]
===Sin===
Sin and knowledge are linked in the [[Judeo-Christian]] tradition. The [[Bible]] begins with the story of [[Adam and Eve]], who were expelled from the [[Garden of Eden]] for eating from the [[Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil]]. As a result of their knowledge, Adam and Eve are made aware of their disobedience, that which separates them from the divine and from other creatures. Once expelled from the Garden of Eden, they are forced to toil and to procreate – two “labors” that seem to define the human condition. The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge – specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be human. For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as “her passport into regions where other women dared not tread,” leading her to “speculate” about her society and herself more “boldly” than anyone else in New England.<ref name="sparknotes">[http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet/ The Scarlet Letter - Sparknotes]</ref>
As for Dimmesdale, the “cheating minister” of his sin gives him “sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his heart vibrate[s] in unison with theirs.” His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy. Hester and Dimmesdale contemplate their own sinfulness on a daily basis and try to reconcile it with their lived experiences. The [[Puritan]] elders, on the other hand, insist on seeing earthly experience as merely an obstacle on the path to heaven. Thus, they view sin as a threat to the community that should be punished and suppressed. Their answer to Hester’s sin is to [[ostracize]] her. Yet, Puritan society is stagnant, while Hester and Dimmesdale’s experience shows that a state of sinfulness can lead to personal growth, sympathy, and understanding of others. Paradoxically, these qualities are shown to be incompatible with a state of purity.<ref name="sparknotes">[http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet/ The Scarlet Letter - Sparknotes]</ref> The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and most fully authorized principles in [[Christian]] thought. His "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity. He ends in corruption. The subtlety is that the minister is his own deceiver, convincing himself at every stage of his spiritual [[pilgrimage]] that he is saved.<ref>Davidson, E.H. 1963. Dimmesdale's Fall. ''The New England Quarterly'' '''36''': 358-370</ref>
The rosebush, its beauty a striking contrast to all that surrounds it – as later the beautifully embroidered scarlet A will be – is held out in part as an invitation to find “some sweet moral blossom” in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that “the deep heart of nature” (perhaps God) may look more kindly on the errant Hester and her child (the roses among the weeds) than do her Puritan neighbors. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.<ref name="yahoo">[http://education.yahoo.com/homework_help/cliffsnotes/the_scarlet_letter/ ''The Scarlet Letter'' by Nathaniel Hawthorne - CliffNotes from Yahoo!Education]</ref>
Chillingworth’s misshapen body reflects (or symbolizes) the evil in his soul, which builds as the novel progresses.<ref name="yahoo">[http://education.yahoo.com/homework_help/cliffsnotes/the_scarlet_letter/ ''The Scarlet Letter'' by Nathaniel Hawthorne - CliffNotes from Yahoo!Education]</ref>
Although Pearl is a complex character, her primary function within the novel is as a symbol. Pearl herself is the embodiment of the scarlet letter, and Hester rightly clothes her in a beautiful dress of scarlet, embroidered with gold thread...just like the scarlet letter upon Hester's bosom. <ref name="sparknotes"/> It would be interesting to draw a parallel between Pearl and Beatrice, in ''[[Rappaccini's Daughter]]''. Both are studies in the same direction, though from different standpoints. Beatrice is nourished upon poisonous plants, until she becomes herself poisonous. Pearl, in the mysterious prenatal world, imbibes the poison of her parents' guilt. But, in either instance, behind this imported evil stands the personal soul: and the question is, Shall the soul become the victim of its involuntary circumstances? Hawthorne, in both cases, inclines to the brighter alternative.<ref>[http://www.powells.com/review/22002_10_15.html Hawthorne, J. 1886 (April). Review: The Scarlet Letter. ''The Atlantic Monthly'']</ref>
===Past and present===
The clashing of past and present is explored in various ways. For example, the character of the old General, whose heroic qualities include a distinguished name, perseverance, integrity, compassion, and moral inner strength, is said to be “the soul and spirit of [[New England]] hardihood.” Now put out to pasture, he sometimes presides over the Custom House run by corrupt public servants, who skip work to sleep, allow or overlook smuggling, and are supervised by an inspector with “no power of thought, nor depth of feeling, no troublesome sensibilities,” who is honest enough but without a spiritual compass.<ref name="yahoo">[http://education.yahoo.com/homework_help_/cliffnotes/the_scarlet_letter/ ''The Scarlet Letter'' by Nathaniel Hawthorne - CliffNotes from Yahoo!Education]</ref>
Hawthorne himself had ambivalent feelings about the role of his ancestors in his life. In his autobiographical sketch, Hawthorne described his ancestors as “dim and dusky,” “grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steel crowned,” “bitter persecutors” whose “better deeds” would be diminished by their bad ones. There can be little doubt of Hawthorne’s disdain for the stern morality and rigidity of the Puritans, and he imagined his predecessors’ disdainful view of him: unsuccessful in their eyes, worthless and disgraceful. “A writer of story books!” But even as he disagrees with his ancestor’s viewpoint, he also feels an instinctual connection to them and, more importantly, a “sense of place” in Salem. Their blood remains in his veins, but their intolerance and lack of humanity becomes the subject of his novel.<ref name="yahoo">[http://education.yahoo.com/homework_help/cliffsnotes/the_scarlet_letter/ ''The Scarlet Letter'' by Nathaniel Hawthorne - CliffNotes from Yahoo!Education]</ref>
==Public response==
''The Scarlet Letter'' was published in the spring of 1850 by Ticknor & Fields, beginning Hawthorne's most lucrative period.<ref name=McFarland136>McFarland, Philip. ''Hawthorne in Concord''. New York: Grove Press, 2004. p. 136. ISBN 0802117767</ref> When he delivered the final pages to [[James Thomas Fields]] in February 1850, Hawthorne said that "some portions of the book are powerfully written" but doubted it would be popular.<ref>Miller, Edwin Haviland. ''Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne''. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 299. ISBN 0877453322</ref> In fact, the book was an instant best-seller<ref>Cheevers, Susan (2006). ''American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work''. Detroit: Thorndike Press. Large print edition. p. 181. ISBN 078629521X</ref> though, over fourteen years, it brought its author only $1,500.<ref name=McFarland136/> Its initial publication brought wide protest from natives of Salem, who did not approve of how Hawthorne had depicted them in his introduction "The Custom-House". A 2,500-copy second edition of ''The Scarlet Letter'' included a preface by Hawthorne dated [[March 30]], [[1850]], that he had decided to reprint his introduction "without the change of a word... The only remarkable features of the sketch are its frank and genuine good-humor... As to [[wikt:enmity|enmity]], or ill-feeling of any kind, personal or political, he utterly disclaims such motives".<ref>Miller, Edwin Haviland. ''Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne''. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 301. ISBN 0877453322</ref>
The book's immediate and lasting success are due to the way it addresses spiritual and moral issues from a uniquely American standpoint. In 1850, adultery was an extremely risqué subject, but because Hawthorne had the support of the New England literary establishment, it passed easily into the realm of appropriate reading. It has been said that this work represents the height of Hawthorne's literary genius; dense with terse descriptions. It remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth, and continues to be read as a classic tale on a universal theme.<ref>[http://www.uwm.edu/Library/special/exhibits/clastext/clspg143.htm The Classic Text: Traditions and Interpretations]</ref>
''The Scarlet Letter'' was also one of the first mass-produced books in America. Into the mid-nineteenth century, bookbinders of home-grown literature typically hand-made their books and sold them in small quantities. The first mechanized printing of ''The Scarlet Letter'', 2,500 volumes, sold out within ten days,<ref name=McFarland136/> and was widely read and discussed to an extent not much experienced in the young country up until that time. Copies of the first edition are often sought by collectors as rare books, and may fetch up to around $6,000 [[United States dollar|USD]].
On its publication, critic [[Evert Augustus Duyckinck]], a friend of Hawthorne, said he preferred the author's [[Washington Irving]]-like tales. Another friend, critic [[Edwin Percy Whipple]], objected to the novel's "morbid intensity" with dense psychological details, writing that the book "is therefore apt to become, like Hawthorne, too painfully anatomical in his exhibition of them".<ref>Miller, Edwin Haviland. ''Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne''. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 301–302. ISBN 0877453322</ref> 20th century writer [[D. H. Lawrence]] said that there could be no more perfect work of the American imagination than ''The Scarlet Letter''.<ref>Miller, Edwin Haviland. ''Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne''. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 284. ISBN 0877453322</ref>
==Allusions==
* [[Anne Hutchinson]], mentioned in Chapter 1, The Prison Door, was a religious dissenter (1591-1643). In the 1630s she was excommunicated by the [[Puritans]] and exiled from [[Boston]] and moved to [[Rhode Island]].<ref name="yahoo">[http://education.yahoo.com/homework_help/cliffsnotes/the_scarlet_letter/ ''The Scarlet Letter'' by Nathaniel Hawthorne - CliffNotes from Yahoo!Education]</ref>
* [[Martin Luther]] (1483-1546) was a leader of the [[Protestant Reformation]] in Germany.
* Sir [[Thomas Overbury]] and Dr. Forman were the subjects of an adultery scandal in 1615 in England. Dr. Forman was charged with trying to poison his adulterous wife and her lover. Overbury was a friend of the lover and was perhaps poisoned.
* [[John Winthrop]] (1588-1649), first governor of the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]].
* Richard Dawkins' [[Out Campaign]] is represented with the [[Scarlet Letter A]] emblem.
==Film, TV and theater==
{{main|The_Scarlet_Letter_%28film%29 |l1=Film Adaptations of the Scarlet Letter}}
[[Image:Scarletlettermovieposter.jpg|thumb|right|1995 film poster]]
* 1917: A [[black-and-white]] [[silent film]] directed by Carl Harbaugh with Mary G. Martin as Hester Prynne
* 1926: A silent movie directed by [[Victor Sjostrom]] and starring [[Lillian Gish]] and [[Lars Hanson]].
* 1934: film directed by [[Robert G. Vignola]] and starring [[Colleen Moore]]
* 1973: ''[[The Scarlet Letter (1973 film)|Der Scharlachrote Buchstabe]]'' a film directed by [[Wim Wenders]] in German
* 1979: [[The Scarlet Letter (TV miniseries)|PBS version]] starring [[Meg Foster]] and [[John Heard (actor)|John Heard]]
* 1994: A rock musical, "The Scarlet Letter" written by Mark Governor is produced in Los Angeles.
* 1995: ''[[The Scarlet Letter (1995 film)|The Scarlet Letter]]'', a film directed by [[Roland Joffé]] and starring [[Demi Moore]] as Hester and [[Gary Oldman]] as Arthur Dimmesdale. This version is "freely adapted" from Hawthorne according to the opening credits and takes liberties with the original story.
* 1996: The film [[Primal Fear (film)|Primal Fear]] references The Scarlet Letter.
* The ''[[Red Letter Plays]]'' (''[[In The Blood]]'' produced in 1999, and ''[[F--ing A]]'', produced in 2000) by playwright [[Suzan-Lori Parks]], rewrote the story placing it in contemporary [[New York]] and [[Houston]].
* 2001: A musical stage adaptation which premiered at the [[Fringe Festival]] in [[Edinburgh, Scotland|Edinburgh]], [[Scotland]], by Stacey Mancine, Daniel Koloski, and Simon Gray.
* 2004: [[The Scarlet Letter (2004 film)|The Scarlet Letter]] is a Korean noir-thriller featuring an adulteress' monologue, that mentions a plan to raise her unborn child as Pearl in America, in a desperate plea to exit her obsessive affair.
*2008: "shAme"[http://www.citysoundmusic.com/projects/shAme.html], a rock opera by Mark Governor based on "The Scarlet Letter" premieres in Los Angeles. It is a major reworking of his 1994 stage musical that was also produced in Boston in 2000 and as a radio production in Berlin in 2005. The 2000 version was endorsed and presented by the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society.
==References to the novel==
===Literature===
* The 1993 novel ''[[The Holder of the World]]'' by [[Bharati Mukherjee]] re-wrote the story, placing it in present-day Boston, [[Colonial America]], and seventeenth-century [[India]] during the spread of the [[British East India Company]].
* [[Deborah Noyes]] wrote a companion to this novel entitled [[Angel and Apostle]] with Pearl as the main character.
*[[Postmodern]] writer [[Kathy Acker]] borrows from ''The Scarlet Letter'' in her novel ''[[Blood and Guts in High School]]''. Janie, the main character, identifies with Hester Prynne and intertwines their stories in a vulgar manner.
*In the novel ''[[Speak (novel)|Speak]]'', Hairwoman, the English teacher, refers to ''The Scarlet Letter'' in her lesson. The novel's protagonist, [[Melinda Sordino]], is a freshman in high school who is ostracized from her fellow schoolmates during the school year, much as Hester Prynne was ostracized by the Puritans in Boston.
* [[Maryse Condé]]'s novel ''I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem'', although set at the time of the [[Salem witch trials]], also features the character Hester Prynne.
* The title of [[Jhumpa Lahiri]]'s 2008 novel ''[[Unaccustomed Earth]]'' comes from a passage from the introduction to ''The Scarlet Letter'': "Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth."
===Music===
* The band [[Halifax (band)|Halifax]] have a song entitled "Scarlet Letter Part 2" on their EP "A Writer's Reference".
* The band [[As Blood Runs Black]] titled their song "Hester Prynne" including lyrics that hint towards sin.
* ''[[The Music Man]]'' character Harold Hill sings a line in the song "The Sadder But Wiser Girl" about his desire for a strong-willed woman: "I smile, I grin, when the gal with a touch of sin walks in. / I hope, and I pray, for a Hester to win just one more 'A'."
* The band [[Trophy Scars]] refer to the title of the book in the opening lines of their album ''Alphabet. Alphabets.'' There are also other allusions to the novel over the course of the album via a similar theme and lexical device. In a recent interview to [[Absolute Punk]], Jerry Jones, the band's lead singer said "I did indeed adopt Nathaniel Hawthorne's motif for his book ''The Scarlet Letter''".
* The [[Virginia]]-based [[Hip-Hop]] group [[The Clipse]] refers to Hawthorne in an unreleased track from their [[2006]] album ''[[Hell Hath No Fury]]''. Pusha T delivers the line "Like a Scarlett letter, for the world to see" on a song called "Pussy" which was later released on their mix tape album ''[[We Got It 4 Cheap]]: Vol. 1''.
* The band [[Sweetbox]] references it in their song "Chyna Girl", in which vocalist Jade sings "And now my scarlet letter burns".
* American composer [[Robert Ward]] composed a ballet in 1994 for the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony based on the novel.
* American composer [[Stephen Paulus]] composed a monodrama opera in 2003 entitled "Hester Prynne at Death" (to a text of [[Terry Quinn]]) based on the novel.
* The [[Casting Crowns]] song "Does Anybody Hear Her?" includes the line; "Can't see past her scarlet letter/And they've never even met her."
* The rosebush is referenced in the song "Don't Forget Me" by the [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]] in the line; "I'm the rainbow, in your jail cell, all the memories of everything you've ever smelled."
* The [[Tool (band)|Tool]] song "The Grudge" deals with the themes of forgiveness and guilt, referencing the novel with the lyrics "Unable to forgive your scarlet letterman"
* The [[Say Anything (band)|Say Anything]] song "People Like You Are Why People Like Me Exist" mentions the line "Repressed and overdressed with a Scarlet Letter on your chest."
* The [[Hole (band)|Hole]] song 'Old Age' references the book with the line "No one knows she's Hester Prynne".
* The [[Project 86]] song titled "Salem's Suburbs" contains the lines "They put on disguises today/To hide the scarlet letters/That each of us has put so far away."
* The [[Jag Panzer]] Song Titled "The Scarlet Letter" on the album "[[Mechanized Warfare]]"
===Television===
* An episode of the America teen drama [[Popular (TV series)|Popular]] was based around each of the main characters confessing their Scarlet Letter.
* In an episode of [[Mama's Family]], Mama is frustrated in her attempts to read the book because of it's language until Iola points out to her that the book is actually a romance with lots of scandal, then Mama is able to read it.
* The show [[One Tree Hill (TV series)|One Tree Hill]] features an episode with a voice over by character Lucas Scott where a quote from The Scarlet Letter is used.
* In "Easy-Bake Coven" plot [[The Simpsons]] [[Treehouse of Horror VIII]], Edna Krabappel is seen wearing a scarlet letter 'A'.
* In [[Grey's Anatomy]], the episode "Who's Zoomin' Who?", George is trying to get Olivia to say she had slept with other men. He says "it's not like I'm handing out Scarlet Letters or anything."
* In "Reno 911!," the episode "Son of a "Chechekevitch" (2006), Deputies Weigel and Kimball answer a 911 call at the Reno Renaissance Fair, where someone sticks a red "A" on the chest of a very pregnant Weigel.
* In the movie "[[Speak (film)|Speak]]" Melinda Sordino and her class are studying symbolism with The Scarlet Letter as reference material, Melinda narrates "why couldn't he just say what he meant? Would they pin a scarlett letter on his chest? S for staight forward."
* In an Episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Lara Flynn Boyle, Boyle plays "Hester" but instead of an "A" on her chest, it is the letters "BJ". Later in the sketch, Will Ferrell comes on to the scene wearing the letters "HJ" and "BF"
* In an episode of [[Twin Peaks]], [[Audrey Horne]] ([[Sherilyn Fenn]]) identifies herself as [[Hester Prynne]] while attempting to gain employment at a brothel.
* A reference to The Scarlet Letter is made in hit medical drama [[House (TV series)]]. In episode "Insensitive", Dr. [[Lisa Cuddy]] asks [[Gregory House]], "Do I need to stitch a letter on my tops?" when he finds out she had brought a man home after a first date.
* In the song "SlutMaker" by GAZA there is a reference to the scarlet letter. stating:""Sluts fuck better." she said to me. So what's with the Scarlet Letter shit? There's no 'A' on your chest."
===Culture===
[[Richard Dawkins]]'s ''[[Out Campaign]]'' for [[atheism]] uses a red scarlet "A" on webpages and clothing as an emblem of atheist identification.<ref name="rdawk">{{cite web
|url=http://outcampaign.org/
|title=The OUT Campaign
|accessdate=2007-12-30
}}</ref>
==See also==
*[[Boston in fiction]]
*[[Illegitimacy in fiction]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==External links==
{{wikisource}}
*[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Eaf135.html The original text of ''The Scarlet Letter'' hosted by the University of Virginia]
*[http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Literature/Hawthorne&Women/ScarletLetter/Introduction.html Hawthorne in Salem Website Page on Hester and Pearl in ''The Scarlet Letter'']
*{{gutenberg|no=33|name=The Scarlet Letter}}
{{Nathaniel Hawthorne}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scarlet Letter, The}}
[[Category:1850 novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Nathaniel Hawthorne]]
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[[fr:La Lettre écarlate]]
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