Throughout literary history, many works have truly shined as stars against the backdrop of other novels of the time. One such of these great classic novels is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne provides his audience with a real sense of the consequences of unconfessed sin, isolation from society, and the presence of evil everywhere. Through his portrayal of the main characters, his choice of setting, and his implied moral lessons to be learned, he teaches lessons that must be learned for humans to continue living in harmony with one another.

Hawthorne, whose last name was originally spelled Hathorne, was born to Captain Nathaniel Hathorne and Elizabeth Clarke Manning on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts. After graduating from Bowdoin College in the middle of his class, he added the "w" to his name possibly in an attempt to escape the reputation of brutality attached...