Examples Of Falseness In The Scarlet Letter

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Throughout The Scarlet Letter, there is a lot of falseness that takes place between some of the main characters. Hidden identities are the main source of untruthfulness in the novel, while the masking of a certain sin also plays a big role. It is said that, in most cases, the truth always comes to light, and it’s no different in this case. Ultimately, by the end of the novel, the truth is reveals in each of these situations. The first sense of dishonesty was when Hester and Dimmesdale chose not to tell Chillingworth who the father of Hester’s child was. Chillingworth’s mind is set on getting revenge on her unknown lover. While in the prison cell with Hester, he tries to get her to tell him who it is by saying that he will eventually be able to tell anyway. Hester is still not convinced enough to reveal the man’s identity. This section of the story is ironic because Dimmesdale sort of pleads with …show more content…

It wasn’t until the end of the novel that Dimmesdale actually found out for sure that Chillingworth was Hester’s husband. Chillingworth asked Hester to conceal his identity and no one other than those two knew of the truth. The townspeople believed that her husband is an Englishman and was previously living with Hester in Amsterdam but decided that they should move to America. Once sending Hester to America first, he never joined her. Not only does Chillingworth hide his identity as Hester’s husband, he also sort of gains another identity as being the “Black Man.” This identity grows on him more and more as the novel progresses. While Dimmesdale and Hester are in the forest together, Hester finally decides to tell who Chillingworth really is. By this part though, it was made obvious that Dimmesdale had sort of a suspicion of it. He doesn’t too much worry about it since he has plans for him, Hester, and Pearl to leave for

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