The Perfect Place In Scarlet Letter

C. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter takes place in modern-day Boston, Massachusetts during the 1630s. The author selects with setting because of the strict regulations the church had in the Puritan societies during that era and the importance of staying pure in God’s eyes. Therefore, the affair that Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale had would not just be a scandal, as it would be labeled today, but a horrendous crime. The town which this novel takes place in is encircled by an unconquered forest. This forest is a place where laws do not exist and is described as a “moral wilderness”, thus making it the perfect place for Arthur Dimmesdale to make his amends with Hester Prynne because the hold society had was gone.