The scarlet letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Bear in mind that the novel is set in the 17th century, in a puritan society.
In it, Hester Prynne, an adulteress is forced to wear a scarlet "A" as evidence of her adultery. She's got a baby daughter, Pearl, but her husband has been away for two full years. Despite all the shaming, Hester protects Pearl's father from punishment by refusing to give up his name.
Hawthorne describes Hester's experience as ACCEPTANCE. She knows she has been an adulteress and she refuses to tell who her lover was. She prefers to live for 7 years being looked down by every inhabitant of the town than to expose his lover.
After her lover is dead and her husband left his inheritance to Hester's daughter, she has the opportunity to get a new life ( as Pearl is already married), but she prefers to go back to the village, and resume her life of penance and grieve, finally to be buried next to her lover, with a gigantic A engraved in their tombs.
