Sin In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

In essence, there were three main sins committed in The Scarlet Letter, the sins of Hester, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth committed the greatest sin because he let himself be ruled by hatred and the consuming desire for vengeance.  The overpowering vengeance and hatred felt by Chillingworth caused his life to be centered on demeaning Dimmesdale and tormenting him until the end of time.  Both Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale committed sins for which they were deeply remorseful, Roger Chillingworth, however, committed the greater sin because he felt no guilt.

Hester and Dimmesdale begin talking in the next chapter. The way that Hawthorne writes their conversation you can almost feel the love that both Hester and Dimmesdale feels toward each other. As their conversation grows deeper Dimmesdale asks Hester if she founds peace, she replies by looking at the scarlet letter, which is a symbolism on how Hester as if she will never find peace as long as she wears this letter, when she returns the question Dimmesdale respond by saying he is miserable. I feel as though Dimmesdale will always be miserable no matter how much charity work he does at the church, the guilt of being a hypocrite is eating him alive. All Dimmesdale wants is a friend or an enemy that knew his secret. When Hester tells Dimmesdale about Chillingworth and how he is her husband I could not help but snicker. His ignorance is astonishing, even the puritans realized that Chillingworth was becoming wicked. Dimmesdale proclaims that he can no longer live under the same roof as Chillingworth, which is when Hester suggest moving back to

In spite of that, what makes her the protagonist of the story is how she is able to overcome her punishment that was meant to give her shame. Throughout Chapter 13 of the book, Hawthorne shows how Hester’s confidence has developed in herself and in view of the town, most noticeably when considering the meaning of the scarlet letter, “Such helpfulness was found in her ... that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength,” (Hawthorne 107). Instead of subjecting to the shame that was forced upon her, she grew above it, conveying a different aspect of the theme of guilt, which is redemption. This is not to say that Hester did not care about the sin she committed, as she is very much reminded of it every day of her life while living with the child of that sin. In fact, the author addresses this by saying, “In giving her existence a great law had been broken; and the result was a being whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder,” (Hawthorne 60). Hawthorne is implying how Pearl represents the outcome of a sin and arranged it so that Hester is always living with that sin, therefore, always being reminded of the shame she is supposed to

The book, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is the scandalous story of Hester Prynne and how the scarlet letter ‘A’ burns on her breast. Hester has a child who is born in adultery. She is sentenced to stand on the dreaded scaffold and endure public shaming and to wear the letter of conviction for the rest of her days. Even in her suffering, Hester refuses to give the identity of the father, the highly regarded Minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. He is a cowardly man who is permits Hester to suffer alone. Even though he confesses his sins eventually, he refuses several other opportunities; therefore, he is weak and cowardly, and in no way a hero.

To begin, Hawthorne uses the scarlet letter “A” to reinforce the theme of Guilt. Hester Prynne, the protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” upon her bosom because she has committed the sin of adultery. This leads Hester to feel guilty for the rest of her life. Hawthorne states, “... that scarlet letter, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself” (Hawthorne 51). The quote shows how feeling guilt has made her much more distant from the rest of the townspeople. Hester experiences this agonizing guilt whenever she glances in a mirror, or down at her chest. Pearl is the result of Hester’s

masked mark in his heart. As a result of his concealed sin, Dimmesdale suffers from guilt and

#1. The sin of Hester was her commitment of adultery. This is the reason of the scarlet letter on her clothing. She takes all the punishment that is given to her for her crime and does not falter with what is right from wrong. Although all of the townspeople know of her crime, she refuses to tell with whom she committed the crime with and who she has hurt in the process. She does not talk about Chillingworth, her actual husband, or Dimmesdale, her true love. This affects not only her, but also her daughter, Pearl. Pearl does not understand the concept of the scarlet letter and she is very straightforward with her mother. Hester's sin affect how she lives her life for much of her life. She had to live being scrutinized by society. She didn’t

Nathaniel Hawthorne's bold novel, The Scarlet Letter, revolves around sin and punishment.  The main characters of the novel sharply contrast each other in the way they react to the sin that has been committed

out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take

People often use guilt as a catalyst/ form of manipulation to get a result but there is also an interpersonal aspect of guilt. According to Piers and Singer (1953) guilt can be derived from castration anxiety, and is often associated with impulses of sexuality. They also insisted that “genuine guilt feelings” are "experienced in solitude and contain no conscious or realistic reference to an audience" (p. 68) Another important aspect of guilt is a wish for negative reinforcement for violating internalized standards of proper behavior. (Guilt, 1944) Dimmesdale's guilt ate him alive after seeing Hester's punishment so he punished himself. He physically mutilated himself by carving an “A” into his chest. He also tortured himself in the hopes of purification by whipping himself almost as if it was a ritual. A section of text mentioned his “Bloody Scourge” and how he had “plied it on his own shoulders” He did this night after night, sometimes staring at his pain in a looking glass, he did it until “his knees trembled beneath him”. He used his sermons as a coping mechanism. He focused on them to distract himself from self harm, or thoughts of Hester and Pearl. Through his sermons he was able to vent, and by stating that he had sinned also it made him more relatable to those in the audience dealing with temptation or their own guilt for sins gone unpunished. There was practically blood in the ink when he wrote his sermons and it made

“Throughout the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the effects of sin on the mind, body, and soul of Hester”(Smith). As Hester commits these sins she thinks that what she did was not a very big deal, but when society finds out she gets put in prison and gets in very big trouble. Hester was fighting her own identity by her trying to keep the Puritan society from finding out about that sins that she had committed but once her religion find out they view her in a whole different way. The Puritan religion viewed her as a very sinful person, and they also viewed her as a promiscuous person. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the letter “A” changes from adultery, to ability, to angel, and to the living persona of Pearl.

Dimmesdale, who keeps his sin discrete, continuously grows more ill as the book progresses. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the characters’ experiences with different forms of tangible sin contradict present day’s form of dealing with sin. Hester is considered

Transcending from the traditional ideals from the 19th century, Hawthorne conceptualizes his story around dark romanticism as the fundamental way to fabricate a story in which characters are anticipated with certain traits surrounding guilt and sins. Through the use of Dark Romantic concepts, the belief in innate destruction and transgressions that can be found in untainted people and locations, as well as the rejection of popular transcendentalist law in favor of a code that reveals humanity in truth, Nathaniel Hawthorne manifests many Dark Romantic ideals into principle characters of the Scarlet Letter to expose hypocrisy in the Puritan way of life. In order to further exemplify his intent, Hawthorne reciprocates the theme of sin by emphasizing

The Battle Against Sin In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, a main focus of the novel is sin and how the capability of a character to deal with their sin effects the way they are able to live. For example, Arthur Dimmesdale a Reverend in the novel, experiences guilt from the inability to come to terms with his sin results in his internal destruction. While, on the other hand Hester Prynne the admitted town adulterer, accepts her sin and is able to find herself even with the constant burden she has placed on her bosom, in the shape of a scarlet gold embroidered "A." The manner with how sin is dealt with either causes the characters demise, or sense of redemption throughout the novel. Hester’s sin of adultery causes her to no longer

Through out the course of history, those who were considered sinners were often out casted from the society. This is much the case with Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. After a public trial, Hester is considered a sinner due to her birthing of a so called “devil child”. Hester is convicted to the life long bearing of a scarlet letter on her chest. The Scarlet Letter that Hester Prynne wears symbolizes the change in perception of sin through out the novel. Due to the revelations of the governor Winthrop and the reverend Dimmesdale, the way sin is perceived changes from one of shame to the idea that every one is a sinner in their own right.