How does the author use allusion in the novel, You Should Have Known?

Hester Prynne’s letter "A” is a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter in which the heroine is forced to wear a red letter “A” on her clothing after she is discovered to be pregnant by an adulterous relationship. In this instance, the woman chooses to take the blame for the affair to protect the man. Marjorie, however, refuses to do this though she feels the jewelry has the same punishment value. At one point when Grace reviews all of the things that Jonathan has caused in her life, she considers one of these things to be “the utter shame of her own public pillory” (393). The pillory is also known as the stocks, a locking wooden frame with holes for the hands and head in which a person was forced to stand on public display of shame. Grace also refers to separating herself from her patients by the use of a guillotine, a medieval device used for public executions. In Grace’s example, she believes she is executing her career instead of her life.