Knowing that the novel was written 200 years after the fictionalized setting, what inference can you make about the societal values of the Puritan age and Hawthorne’s time?

Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter in the 19th century but set it in a 17th-century Puritan community. The contrast lets readers see that Hester can be viewed sympathetically and admired for her strength in Hawthorne’s time, while the Puritans treat her as a sinner because of her adultery. This supports choice A, rather than the claims that Hawthorne shared Puritan values or that attitudes toward sin stayed much the same.

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