The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most famous American authors in all of American literary history. The novel is considered one of the greatest novels in American literary history. In the story, Hester, the novel's protagonist, is condemned to bear the scarlet letter "A" on her chest as a permanent sign of her sin. The author describes the torments suffered by Hester and her partner in adultery, the minister Arthur Dimmesdale in the following years. The story begins at the end of Hester's imprisonment after her affair and through many years to her final acceptance of her place in the community as the bearer of the scarlet letter, a symbol of shame. Throughout the story, the letter "A" embodied on Hester's chest is given different meanings and symbols. At the beginning of the novel the letter "A" on Hester's chest is considered a label of sin, the sin of adultery, as shown by Nina Baym. from her Themes in the Scarlet Letter "When asked to wear a red A, the Puritans assumed it had one fixed meaning: adultery." (Nina Baym). As for the punishment of her sin, Puritan society rejected her and she was not treated like a normal person afterward, Puritan society instead saw her as a symbol of shame, sin, and something to blame. The Puritan society punished her by having her stand on the scaffold for three hours while she held her child in her arms: “She clasped the child so tightly to her breast, that she let out a cry; he looked down at the scarlet letter and even touched it with his finger, to make sure that the child and the shame were real. "(p.50). But later the true meaning of the letter is altered. Later in the story the letter is seen differently by the Puritan society, The... center of the card... they saw the letter "A" on the chest of Arthur Dimmesdale "Most of the spectators testified that they saw, on the breast of the unhappy minister, a scarlet letter—the same likeness as that worn by Hester Prynne—imprinted in the flesh (pg201), and some people have suggested an idea that Roger Chillingworth is the one who caused this mysterious letter to appear on Dimmesdale's chest "Others held that the stigma was not produced until much later, when old Roger Chillingworth, being a powerful necromancer, had caused it to appear , through the agent of magical and poisonous drugs." Strangely enough, there was a group of people who testified that they saw nothing on his chest, "who were spectators of the entire scene, and declared that they never took their eyes off it. by the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, denying that there was any sign whatsoever." on the chest" (p211).