If a man is so dedicated to his writings, then it is surly proven when he writes a forty-eight introduction just to begin his novel. Set in the seventeenth century, Hawthorne effectively illustrates Puritanism in the introductory pages of The Scarlet Letter, thus making the preface of the novel significant to the remainder of the story. The introductory of the novel is set forth to prepare the reader for the events and people that will come into play later in the story. It seems though that the main purposes of his preface tend to center around inviting the reader to understand his past, to concentrate on his service at the Custom House, and to introduce the scarlet letter that represented adultery in the Puritan period. Hawthorne's preface is just a mere opening into his life and times, which makes the preface significant to the novel.…
