This book is a collection of critical essays on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
The Scarlet Letter
(1850) – one of the most influential American works of fiction. The presented interpretations deal not only with the principal characters of the novel, but also with «The Custom-House», the Spanish sailors, the Book of Revelations, and the artist as adulterer. The critical tools employed include allegory, the
Biedermeier
, hermeneutical exposition, semiosis of the
infans
, and triangular desire.
This publication is dedicated to the memory of Andrzej Kopcewicz (1934-2007), the first
professor ordinarius
of American literature in the history of English studies in Poland, on the tenth anniversary of his death.