<P> The Scarlet Letter: A Romance, an 1850 novel, is a work of historical fiction written by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne . The book is considered to be his "masterwork". Set in 17th - century Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony, during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity . Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt . </P> <P> In an extended introduction, Hawthorne describes his employment in the Salem Custom House, and how he purportedly found an old document and a piece of cloth embroidered with the letter "A" in a pile of old papers . This fictitious document being the germ of the story that Hawthorne writes, as follows . </P> <P> In June 1642, in a Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, a crowd gathers to witness the punishment of Hester Prynne, a young woman who has given birth to a baby of unknown parentage . She is required to wear a scarlet "A" on her dress when she is in front of the townspeople to shame her . "A" stands for adulteress, although this is never said explicitly in the novel . Her "punishment" (because adultery is illegal at the time) is to stand on the scaffold for three hours, to be exposed to public humiliation, and to wear the scarlet "A" for the rest of her life . As Hester approaches the scaffold, many of the women in the crowd are angered by her beauty and quiet dignity . When demanded and cajoled to name the father of her child, Hester refuses . </P> <P> As Hester looks out over the crowd, she notices a small, misshapen man and recognizes him as her long - lost husband, who has been presumed lost at sea . When the husband sees Hester's shame, he asks a man in the crowd about her and is told the story of his wife's adultery . He angrily exclaims that the child's father, the partner in the adulterous act, should also be punished and vows to find the man . He chooses a new name--Roger Chillingworth--to aid him in his plan . </P>

What does the letter a mean in the scarlet letter