Guilt In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne shows sins of several different kinds in numerous people, as well as the consequences and remedies of their sins. Arthur Dimmesdale, bares the most brutal effects of his sins. Hester Prynne recognized her sins and accepted them. She wore the letter “A” with such pride and dignity. Dimmesdale on the other hand knew what he did was unacceptable and was unable to confess his sins, because of the fear of not being accepted into society, and also the fear of not being forgiven by God.

Without an honorable reputation a person is not worthy of respect from others in their society. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the struggle to shake off the past is an underlying theme throughout the novel. Characters in this novel go through their lives struggling with trying to cope with the guilt and shame associated with actions that lost them their honorable reputation. Particularly, Hawthorne shows the lasting effect that sin and guilt has on two of the main characters in the book: Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale.

Mr. Dimmesdale’s conscience constantly brought his negative aspects to mind, and caused him to spiral into self hatred and misery. The overwhelming presence of guilt for his offense caused Mr. Dimmesdale unbearable suffering and general unhappiness in knowing that he had not only wronged God, but Hester and the entire community as well.

Reverend Dimmesdale was a renowned, prideful man stricken with sin and extreme guilt.  From the time Hester and Dimmesdale made love, he was grievous of his sin but he also felt a great love towards her.  Dimmesdale's stubborn pride troubled him greatly, and although he tried many times, he could not confess his sin to his religious followers.  Dimmesdale felt guilt so strongly that he scourged himself on his breast and patterned an “A” into his own flesh, yet he could not confess his sin until his grief grew so great it caused him to perish.  Reverend Dimmesdale's sin was greater than Hester's because he let his pride conflict with his repentance, and let his life be ruined by his anguish.

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, proves to be a sinner against man, against God and most importantly against himself because he has committed adultery with Hester Prynne, resulting in an illegitimate child, Pearl. His sinning against himself, for which he ultimately paid the

Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne relays the theme of guilt using symbolism that is portrayed in the scarlet letter itself and in the main character’s daughter. The story follows the protagonist, Hester Prynne, who commits adultery with the town minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, producing the child she raises on her own named Pearl. Guilt is a common theme for the duration of the novel which covers all aspects of the shame each character feels. These particular dimensions of shame come specifically from different objects in the novel and what they represent.

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne exhibits how three very unique characters are evidently brought together by the sins that they have perpetrated and how they manage to perform acts of atonement in the puritanical Boston society. Hester Prynne sins by committing the shocking transgression of adultery. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who as well engages in adultery with Hester, abandons her and their daugher because of his own cowardice and hypocrisy. Roger Chillingworth grows to become a maleficent being who tries to corrupt the very soul of Reverend Dimmesdale. Although Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale do sin greatly, it is Roger Chillingworth who sins to the most ferocious degree.

Guilt and shame haunt all three of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter, but how they each handle their sin will change their lives forever. Hester Prynne’s guilt is publicly exploited. She has to live with her shame for the rest of her life by wearing a scarlet letter on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, on the other hand, is just as guilty of adultery as Hester, but he allows his guilt to remain a secret. Instead of telling the people of his vile sin, the Reverend allows it to eat away at his rotting soul. The shame of what he has done slowly kills him. The last sinner in this guilty trio is Rodger Chillingworth. This evil man not only hides his true identity as Hester’s husband, but also mentally torments

In Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s book, The Scarlet Letter, we see the theme of guilt portrayed in the life of Reverend Dimmesdale in three different ways. In this essay we will talk about those three different ways. Reverend Dimmesdale’s guilt began when Hester was put into prison for the sin they both committed. When the child was born, all of the people of the Puritan town marked Hester with an “A” for adulter and condemned her only for their sin. Unlike Hester who beautifully embroidered her “A”, Reverend Dimmesdale wore his “A” in silence.

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays Arthur Dimmesdale as a troubled individual. In him lies the central conflict of the book. Dimmesdale's soul is torn between two opposing forces: his heart, his love for freedom and his passion for Hester Prynne, and his head, his knowledge of Puritanism and its denial of fleshly love. He has committed the sin of adultery but cannot seek divine forgiveness, believing as the Puritans did that sinners received no grace. His dilemma, his struggle to cope with sin, manifests itself in the three scaffold scenes depicted in The Scarlet Letter. These scenes form a progression through which Dimmesdale at first denies, then accepts reluctantly, and finally conquers his sin.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne paints a picture of two equally guilty sinners, Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale, and shows how both characters deal with their different forms of punishment and feelings of remorse for what they have done. Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale are both guilty of adultery, but have altered ways of performing penance for their actions. While Hester must pay for her sins under the watchful eye of the world around her, Reverend Dimmesdale must endure the heavy weight of his guilt in secret. It may seem easier for Reverend Dimmesdale to live his daily life since he is not surrounded by people who shun

Nathaniel Hawthorne was the author of the fictional book, “The Scarlet Letter”. The Scarlet Letter is about a young woman named Hester Pryne who commits adultery, and is forced to wear the letter “A” on her chest. Hawthorne shows the effects of sin in the Scarlet letter through the characters of Hester Pryne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Dimmesdale was Hester’s lover, the father of her child and the minister. Dimmesdale lives with guilt, because he also has” [his own] scarlet letter,” (Hawthorne 130).

When the modern-day reader indulges in a novel published prior to the 1900s, they may not interpret the author’s work the way it was intended to be understood. A fine example would be The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the beginning of the novel, a young woman named Hester Prynne was found guilty of committing adultery. Her punishment was to wear a scarlet “A” on her chest to cause her to feel shame and to stand on the town’s scaffold for three hours to endure public humiliation. In this scene, Hawthorne assumes that his audience understands how horrifying it was for a woman to be found guilty as an adulterer in the 1600s. As Hawthorne thoroughly depicts, there was no separation between the church and state, so if a woman was found

“Guilt is to the spirit what is pain to the body.” This quote stated by David A. Bedar is exhibited clearly in the novel The Scarlet Letter. The main character in the novel is forced to live with the letter “A” representing adulteress on her chest. This is affianced to invariably remind her of the guilt she should posses for the crime of adultery. This affects a multitude of people including Hester, the mother of an illegitimate child Pearl, and Dimmesdale, the father of Pearl. Their guilt is apparent while Chillingworth, Hester's husband, is seeking revenge for the tratorious action. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the display of guilt to show the theme that guilt is an everlasting punishment, which affects Hester and Dimmesdale specifically.

To begin with, Hawthorne uses the scarlet letter “A” to contribute to the theme of Guilt. The townspeople no longer see a beautiful woman Hester Prynne, the protagonist of this story, the same way before her sin. They see nothing but a shameful, sad, pitiful, breathing sin, and disgraceful woman who committed a horrific crime of adultery. Hawthorne explains, the good wives explaining “This