Chapter 1: 1. The setting of this novel is in Boston which is in the colony of Philadelphia 2. The opening chapter takes place in Boston, a large densely populated city. 3. The colony set aside land for a cemetery and a prison before anything else. 4. She was involved in the Salem Witch Trials, and Hawthorne is not very positive about her. 5. The rose shows Hester and can also show Hester?s child, they are both very delicate and beautiful and stuck in this terrible world. Chapter 2: 1. Witchcraft which would be execution, adultery which would be humiliation, and murder which would be execution or prison. 2. Religion governs the law in Puritan communities and is the basis for all legal decisions.