The Scarlet Letter is Nathaniel Hawthorne' s classic tale of love, adversity, and community morals in Puritan New England. Forced to wear the scarlet " A" after committing adultery and bearing a child, Hester Prynne lives on the outskirts of society; visited by the Reverend Dimmesdale and watched over by Roger Chillingworth, she is both at the mercy and defiant of the values that shape her fate and that of her child.