How does the author, N. Hawthorne contrast the elaborate design of The Scarlet Letter with the ideals of the Puritan society? Focusing specifically on...

In this
introductory part of the novel, the surveyor who will be the narrator of 's story, finds
Hester's scarlet letter eons after the fact.  He notices that it is made of:

. . .fine red cloth, much worn and faded. There were traces about it
of gold embroidery, which, however, was greatly frayed and defaced; so that none, or very
little, of the glitter was left.

A Puritan would have
shunned wearing anything that was so decorative, anything that had "gold embroidery".
He notes that there was little of the glitter left, symbolizing how Puritan society might have
squeezed out any "glitter" (joy) from living, which the reader later finds out to be
true in Hester's case.

The...