Example of allegory in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

There seems
to be some confusion here
aboutversus symbolism. A symbol is something that stands for some
larger
idea. It could be a color, object, place, person and so on. An allegory is when we
can
understand the entire story as a symbol. The two concepts are related but
distinct.

If you are talking about taking the entire story
as an allegory, then you could argue
that Hawthorne is delving into issues of
sin, guilt, hypocrisy, and women's rights. If you want
to interpret the whole
story as an allegory, you could look at how he uses the governor and the

townspeople to point out the hypocrisy of people in power and how malleable public
opinion is.
You could also consider that was written
right around the Seneca Falls
Convention and that Hawthorne knew several
people who were active in the abolitionist and
women's rights movements. You
could make an argument that 's struggle is symbolic of the
struggle of many
women in the face of patriarchy.

If, however,

you...