The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a cult classic. And for good reason. Anyone who simply believes that the title of this book simply means that the protagonist wears a scarlet "A" on her dress as punishment for her adultery is ignorant. Obviously, this document would not be necessary if this were true. Instead, The Scarlet Letter is extremely ambiguous. It can be said that the scarlet letter is a character in itself. I intend to flesh this out in literary, historical and symbolic terms. What is The Scarlet Letter really about? “It has all the ingredients of a soap opera, but it is much more than that,” writes Claudia Durst Johnson (Johnson, 1995) in her in-depth book The Scarlet Letter. Rather, it is about the consequences of violating the moral code, or in this case a moral law. It’s about not being true to human nature. This is cruel and terrible revenge. It is about the hypocrisy of members of a community who refuse to recognize that each of them is just as human, just as vulnerable to passionate feelings, as the women they label as adulterers. I could go on and on. The psychological aspects of The Scarlet Letter seem endless. The letter is a symbol. Although it has many implied meanings, it also has literal meanings. The first and most obvious of these is that Hester's "A" represents adultery and, as the narrator says, "the frailty and sinful passion of women" (83). But the "A" on his chest begins to represent different things as the story unfolds. For example, some people start to think that the “A” stands for “capable” when helping the community. "Over the course of the novel, the 'A' seems to encompass the whole range of the human being, from the earthly and passionate adulterous woman to the pure and...... middle of paper ...... in America during the 17th century. He wanted his readers to develop their own interpretation of how America has changed. A number, with some exceptions, generally means nothing other than its value. So, that was ruled out. Why is it The Scarlet Letter? Why not The Scarlet A? A title is much more effective when it is more general. Ultimately, authors write books to make money. The Scarlet A is a confusing title, but also less attractive, which would have sold much less. It's best to have the title be general, then make the book more specific. What's more memorable? “The Scarlet Letter” or “The Scarlet A: Adultery in the 1600s?” The Scarlet Letter was titled that for a reason. It symbolizes and appeals to all of the major themes of the book, while making it obvious at first glance what the book focuses on..