Who is Nathaniel Hawthorne? Nathaniel Hawthorne is the author of the novel The Scarlet Letter. He graduated from Bowdoin College and then returned to Salem. Hawthorne subsequently spent the next twelve years writing and had many of his books published. One of those books was The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850. In fact The Scarlet Letter was one of the greatest books he wrote. Furthermore, Hawthorne was a great writer of the 1800s, born into a Puritan community with Puritan beliefs. The Puritans were a group of people who separated from the Church of England to try to purify or change the church. Puritans believed that God was superior to everything, including government. The Puritan community would punish anyone who did not follow God's law. For example, as in The Scarlet Letter, Hester was tempted to commit sin and committed adultery and had to wear the scarlet letter A as punishment. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel about sin, passion, love and revenge. This novel is about a woman named Hester who lives in a Puritan community. Hester is tempted to sin and has a child with a minister, Reverend Dimmsdale, who is revealed later in the story. Hester must wear a scarlet letter on her chest for all to see to highlight her shame because she has sinned. On the other hand Roger Chillingworth seeks revenge on Reverend Dimmsdale because, while Chillingworth was away, Hester had a child with Dimmsdale. I believe Chillingworth's revenge against Dimmsdale is one of the main conflicts in this novel. Hester Prynne, one of the characters in The Scarlet Letter, I think is the most dynamic character in the novel. At the beginning of the novel Hester is portrayed as a young beauty......in the center of the card......tter is supposed to be a symbol of shame, but her symbolism changes throughout the story. The Scarlet Letter becomes a powerful symbol of Hester's identity and ultimately comes to represent adultery or "Able." Therefore the Scarlet Letter is a very important symbol in this novel. To conclude, the Scarlet Letter is an extremely powerful novel that teaches you the reality of life and that there is not always a happy ending. By studying this novel I learned that many people sin and that you should not be judged for that, but for the good things you do in life. I also learned that there are many vengeful people in life who only want to hurt others and don't even realize that they are hurting them. Reading and watching this novel was a great experience that taught me life lessons and helped me understand the reality of life..