The Scarlet LetterAfter Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, people flocked to America in search of a new life. One of these groups was the Puritans, who fled England following persecution by the crown. The Puritans were known for their extreme devotion to religion and their goal of making their community a "city upon a hill." This idea of ​​a city on a hill shows how much they want everyone to look up to them, but it also meant that all their actions would be elevated and amplified. This reflects the strict rules and harsh punishments that are etched deep into their society. Crimes such as adultery could be punished by death. Two hundred years after the Puritans initially settled, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes about Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman living in one of America's first colonies who has a story of coming to America similar to that of other Puritans of her time, until she was found guilty. of adultery. The Scarlet Letter may seem like a simple story about a Puritan woman living in America at the start of the New World, in reality, this is not true. Hawthorne's use of symbolism through the appearance and setting of the characters to show the mindset and feelings of the individuals in The Scarlet Letter makes the story much more complex and meaningful than an author writing simply a story about a Puritan woman. This interpretation of The Scarlet Letter can be compared to The Obliquity of Signs: The Scarlet Letter written by Millicent Bell. The setting contributes greatly to the meaning of The Scarlet Letter. One of the key places in the book is scaffolding. The first paragraph of chapter two expresses: "Both the gentlest and the harshest acts of publication... middle of paper ... it is impossible to assume that a single interpretation is correct when everyone understands things differently." It's obvious that there are an endless amount of little details and signs embedded in The Scarlet Letter, and it's impossible to find them all and rationalize them properly because everyone is able to see different interpretations of the same story . This is what makes The Scarlet Letter considered such a great work. The Scarlet Letter is incredibly complex because of Hawthorne's use of the presence and location of characters. Other authors, like Millicent Bell, write articles such as The Obliquity of Signs to try to justify all the events in Hawthorne's novel in an attempt to better understand the work, but in reality, these interpretations help people understand their own interpretation of events rather than what they are. was intended.