Author+and+historical+background

Nathaniel Hawthorne -Born July 4, 1804 in Salem Massachusetts. -Descended from the earliest settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. -Ancestor of John Hathorne (one of the judges in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials) -Added a "W" to his name when he began to write because he didn't want to be associated with him while he writes. -Was fascinated with his ancestor John Hathorne. -Referred to his novels as romances, in the broadest literary sense of the word.

Puritans -Puritans: religious group of reformers who arrived in Massachusetts in the 1630s under John Winthrop. -Known for intolerance of dissenting ideas and lifestyles. -Portrays the Puritan society as repressive and authoritarian and human soul under extreme pressures. -Forbidden to dance, read anything other than the Bible, or to go against anything the Bible tells them to do, the goal is to get God's "good graces" and to get to heaven through good works.

The Scarlett Letter -A narrator, who is the surveyor of the customhouse in Salem, MA, finds documents. Included is a manuscript bundled with a scarlet, gold-embroided path of cloth in the shape of an "A." -The narrator writes the book to show Americans to better understand its religious and moral heritage. -In 1850, adultery was an extremely risqué subject.