The Scarlet Letter Genre

Gothic, Romance, Historical

Gothic tales contain a mystery or elements of a mystery at their hearts. For most of the novel, we do not know who Hester’s lover is. This mystery man haunts the story.

As for romance, Pearl is a physical manifestation of a passionate love affair, and this romance results in the misery and punishment for Hester, Dimmesdale, and even Chillingworth, which form the bedrock of this novel.

The Scarlet Letter also explores the life and times of early America, and how Puritans dealt communally with sin. The presence-by-absence of references to Native Americans in the novel also reveals much about the Puritans’ colonial attitudes and approaches. We learn as much about early America through the details our narrator omits from the novel as we do from those he includes.