The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1850 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Victorian

In Puritan Boston, Hester Prynne is put on the scaffold with an infant and an embroidered A, and refuses to name the father. Her long-absent husband arrives in the watching crowd, keeps his own identity quiet, and goes looking for the man himself. Public shame and private guilt; the sin worn openly versus the one hidden.

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Lineage

• ↓ Moby-Dick
  Herman Melville · 1851 CE · Novel — influenced by this
• ↓ Wise Blood
  Flannery O'Connor · 1952 CE · Novel — influenced by this
• ↓ The House of the Seven Gables
  Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1851 CE · Novel — influenced by this

Attributes

Closest analogues

• The Crucible
  Arthur Miller · 1953 CE · Play

  57% · 12 shared
  HistoricalTragedyGuilt & ConscienceIndividual vs SocietyScapegoatTragic ReversalThe Trialvs Societyvs SelfTragicRealistModern / American
• Crime and Punishment
  Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1866 CE · Novel

  54% · 14 shared
  NovelGuilt & ConscienceRedemptionVictorianFallen WomanScapegoatTragic ReversalFall–Rise (Man in a Hole)Transcendence / Salvationvs Societyvs SelfGothicTragicRealist
• Anna Karenina
  Leo Tolstoy · 1877 CE · Novel

  53% · 12 shared
  NovelTragedyGuilt & ConscienceIndividual vs SocietyForbidden LoveVictorianFallen WomanTragic Reversalvs Societyvs SelfTragicRealist
• Miss Julie
  August Strindberg · 1888 CE · Play

  53% · 11 shared
  TragedyGuilt & ConscienceIndividual vs SocietyForbidden LoveVictorianFallen WomanTragic Reversalvs Societyvs SelfTragicRealist
• The Ox-Bow Incident
  William A. Wellman · 1943 CE · Film

  51% · 11 shared
  TragedyGuilt & ConscienceIndividual vs SocietyScapegoatTragic ReversalThe Lettervs Societyvs SelfTragicRealistModern / American
• Weir of Hermiston
  R. L. Stevenson · 1896 CE · Novel

  50% · 12 shared
  NovelHistoricalTragedyIndividual vs SocietyForbidden LoveVictorianTragic ReversalThe Trialvs Societyvs SelfTragicRealist