One of the most enduring pieces of American literature is still Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850). The novel examines how sin, guilt, and the prospect of redemption impact people’s lives and is set in the strict Puritan society of Boston in the seventeenth century. Hawthorne explores how moral judgment and social expectations define the experience of sin through the narratives of Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. He also asks whether redemption is possible in such a rigid society.