Sin In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The children In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter play a major role in the Puritan society. With their honest opinions of Hester and Pearl, the children are presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults. Due to their innocence, children are capable of expressing themselves without constraints; there are no laws or regulations that they are bounded by. As an adolescent go through the stages of life and grow older, they begin to be more conscious of the how they act as they are more aware of society and the things that are occurring in the world, creating a filter for their actions. When they remain as the children, on the other hand, are adventurous; they are still exploring the universe that seems to fill with mysteries that are bound to be solved. They tend to attach to the truth and they are not afraid to speak it freely. Children differ from adults in their potential for expressing these perceptions. With their obliviousness to the things that are actually going on around the town, children therefore react differently compared to the adults, who are more knowledgeable. Perceived to be immature, young children are presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults due to their innocence, how they are unaware of the reality and the crimes that are presented in society by the adults enables them to be blithe and not afraid of saying what they feel like. Due to their naivety, when they express what they perceive to be true, they do not get punished,

All emotions that an individual can feel can be separated into different stages of intensity. In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, guilt from sins, both hidden and out in the open, are classified into three stages: lack of guilt from terrible sin, extreme guilt from concealed sin, and beneficial guilt from open sin. Each stage of guilt affects the personality of an individual, possibly revealing traits that otherwise might never have been unveiled. Roger Chillingworth transforms into an evil character throughout the course of the novel due to his lack of guilt. In addition, Arthur Dimmesdale suppresses his guilt and sin during his transformation, eventually leading to a major physical change as well. However, guilt does not

Take Hester Prynne, the main character and adulteress of The Scarlet Letter. Her own sin, which is as visible as could be, was not what had caused her to change. Instead it is her “sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts” (SL 83) that drove her towards

Puritans believed that few are chosen by God to be saved and that only God is the one that knows who are saved and who are not. They believe that if they live a humble life during their time on earth, they will have higher chance of going into Heaven. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne introduces three main characters who have committed a sin. Out of Hester, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, in the view of Puritan’s belief of sin, Chillingworth is the guiltiest sinner of all because according to Puritan’s belief, sin is unforgivable if the sinner does not repent even to their death.

Throughout the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne debates whether under Puritan beliefs if someone is saved and forgiven for their sins or not forgiven. Members of society argue and decide the fate of sinners depending on the severity of the sin and their general feelings and thoughts of a sinner, yet, hypocritically, claim their decision as God’s will. Roger Chillingworth, best representing “Satan”, is not forgiven for his sins, despite willing all his wealth and belongings to Pearl, representing “Conscience.”

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, he asserts that one can never escape the consequences of their actions. Therefore, Arthur Dimmesdale, a priest cannot escape his sin of adultery with Hester Prynne. Thus, he finds himself being sought out by Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, and Dimmesdale leads to his own demise. Chillingworth finds himself not guilty of Dimmesdale’s death due to the priest's own self sabotage. Dimmesdale sees himself as a loyal preacher of God therefore his inability to forgive himself has caused him great harm and sickness.

Sin is Never Forgotten “Sin penetrates to the heart, darkens and hardens it until it extinguishes the light of belief. Each sin has a path that leads to unbelief. Unless that sin is swiftly obliterated by seeking God’s forgiveness, it grows from a worm into a snake that gnaws at the heart” (Said Nursi). If the sin in our lives sits in our hearts it will darken our heart and lead us away from our faith and it slowly kills the light and the life in us. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne sin is shown throughout all of the characters.

Guilt is like a termite; it eats away a man’s soul in the same way a termite eats away at a house’s foundation. In his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne covers this undeniable reality through his character, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The greatly revered Puritan minister, who has the “earnest of high eminence in his profession,”(50) broke the laws that he represents by committing the great sin of adultery and even having a child with his partner-in-sin, Hester Prynne, who is married to the missing scholar Roger Chillingworth. These sins, though, pale in comparison to his greatest sin: Dimmesdale did not admit to his sins like Prynne; Dimmesdale tries to evade the dagger or guilt, which turns out to only pierce his heart all

He has felt an influence dwelling always upon him like a curse (Hawthorne 131).” This quote proves that Chillingworth sin was the fact that he never learned to let go and forgive. Here is a man who bestowed the type of knowledge and skill that only a dozen other people in America had and he let one man practically take it away from him as he wasted

Hypocrisy is not only prevalent in present day but is also shown during the age of the Puritans. The Puritans may have given the impression of having lived a righteous and holy pure life, but in the end, they all fall victims to sin because of human nature and free will. The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne does an outstanding job of portraying the Puritans and their many struggles within their religious beliefs throughout their community. The society in which these main characters, Hester Prynne, Rodger Chillingworth who is Hester’s husband, and the minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, all live within the tight-knit of the Puritan community. Hester Prynne commits an act in which she is publicly embarrassed for and is forced to wear

In the Puritan town that Hester lives in, reputation is held at the highest value. The characters act as if the worst thing you can do is sin against God. Hester says, “Whether it be a sin or no, I hate the man!” (161) about Roger Chillingworth. The guilt and shame of sinning against God is how people are judged morally.

Sinning is wrong no matter how you look at it is all the same to God. In The Scarlet letter Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale both sin but the handle in it different ways, because of this the way they were treated by others and the way their sin affected them told the reader information about their character. When people disobey the Ten Commandments they commit sin, and don’t let it show because they do not want anyone to know about it, because of this guilt builds up and overcome the person so that all they can think of is their sin and that others know about their sin. Instead of hiding her sin Hester Prynne shows her sin, accepts it and forgives herself for what she a had done in the past even when her was constantly reminded of her sin. In Psalm 32:5 it says “then I acknowledge my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne 's book The Scarlet Letter he exhibits how committing sin can entirely consume a person through the three characters Chillingworth, Dimmesdale, and Hester and how they change from the sin.

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the unnecessarily severe punishments for committing a sin in a pitiless Puritan society were shown through Hester’s public embarrassment, through Dimmesdale’s internal

The Puritan’s form of belief is that there is no way to escape the downfall from grace once one has sinned. Nathaniel Hawthorne states in his novel The Scarlet Letter that we are all equally sinners creating a belief in him that there must be a way to save one’s self from their sin. Hawthorn creates the characters; Chillingworth, Hester, and Dimmesdale as representations of the moral consequences of sin and the path one must take to redeem their grace.