The Scarlet Letter is a novel written in 1840 by the famous author Nathaniel Hawthorne and is considered one of the most symbolic works of American literature. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman living in mid-17th-century Boston, who gives birth to a baby girl after committing adultery and struggles to create a new life of penance and pride. Because of the sin she commits, she is forced to perpetually wear a scarlet letter on her chest. The scarlet letter is a complex symbol, as it contains several meanings. Indeed, much of Hawthorne's symbolism is very difficult to notice, but many symbols are also clear. The prison, in contrast, is a clear symbol, as it obviously represents the crime and punishment built into mid-17th-century Puritan Boston. Pearl, Hester's elf-daughter, can also be considered a clear symbol as she symbolizes everything Hester gave up when she committed adultery. In the very first pages of The Scarlet Letter, prison is presented as a symbol of both isolation and alienation. For Hester, it foreshadows the life she will face even after she leaves her confines. While Hester lives in the prison of seclusion, her anonymous lover, Dimmesdale, lives in the prison of his unconfessed guilt, and her husband, Chillingworth, is imprisoned by his own vengeance and anger. The prison also clearly represents crime and punishment, which were often incorporated into early Puritan life: “A crowd of bearded men, in drab colored robes and gray bell-crowned hats, mixed with women, some with hoods and others bareheaded. , was assembled in front of a wooden building, the door of which was heavily covered with wood... in the middle of paper... it's a job. It provides a novel at different levels of interpretation, keeping all its secret for the happy few, those who have the courage and ability to descend to its deepest layers, leaving behind simple concepts, such as time and space. Nathaniel Hawthorne was so successful in the art of symbolism that his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter, became known as the most famous symbolic novel of all time in American literature. Works Cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel, Brian Harding, and Cindy Weinstein. The Scarlet Letter. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.Sauder, Diane. "PinkMonkey.com MonkeyNotes for Macbeth by William Shakespeare."PinkMonkey.com. 1997.August 1, 2004Shmoop editorial team. “Symbolism, Imagery, and Allegory of the Scarlet Letter” Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., November 11, 2008. Web. August 12. 2011.