The document provides background information on the scarlet letter from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel. In the novel, the main character is found guilty of adultery and is forced to wear a scarlet "A" as a symbol of her shame. The document then provides an example sentence using the term "scarlet letter" to refer to a label that could become a mark of shame. It concludes by citing the source of the definition in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions.