In The Scarlet Letter, the three main characters; Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth all commit sins. The protagonist Hester Prynne commits adultery by having a child with Dimmesdale while she was married to Chillingworth. Arthur Dimmesdale commits fornication through the same act as he is not married, and also bears false witness by not admitting to his sins. Roger Chillingworth seeks vengeance on the man who slept with his wife. All of these sins have an affect on the characters, however some characters are affected more than the others. Hester Prynne committed the sin of adultery by having a child with Reverend Dimmesdale. Her sin would have been kept a secret if she had not become pregnant. Because she had not seen …show more content…
her husband in a long time, it became apparent that she had sinned. When it came to her punishment, she was forced to wear the letter A for the rest of her life. Although this caused no physical pain, it made her an outcast from the rest of society. According to Hester, “In all her intercourse with society, however, there was nothing that made me feel as if she belonged to it. Every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom she came in contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished.” (58) However, although hester was the only one given a punishment, she suffers the least. Hester faced consequences and she overcame them. By the end of the book, the townspeople didn’t see the A as “adultery”, they saw it as “able”. She was able to come out of her suffering as a better person, and therefore prospered from it. Because Hester faced the consequences that she was given, she suffered the least. Arthur Dimmesdale committed the sin of fornication and although what he did was never fully discovered by the townspeople, he suffered the most. In Dimmesdale’s words, “He had been driven hither by the impulse of that Remorse which dogged him everywhere.” (97-98) Dimmesdale regretted his mistakes so deeply that he punished himself for what he had done. Throughout the seven years in sin, he whipped his own back, he starved himself, and he stayed vigil for many many nights struggling to compensate for his sins. Dimmesdale became a depressed man and lost all vitality and the last years of his life were filled with misery as he became sick from all that he put himself through. Dimmesdale may have committed an equal crime as Hester, but he suffered much more because of it. Roger Chillingworth seeked revenge on the man who slept with his wife and this desire drives him down a villainous path.
He suspects Dimmesdale so he moves in with him and becomes his doctor. Seeing that Dimmesdale is sick, he decides to use this to his advantage. Throughout the years Chillingworth gained his trust and kept him alive, however, never curing him completely causing him to live in constant pain. Dimmesdale is trapped with Chillingworth for years until the prospect of running away with Hester rejuvenates him. As a result, he doesn't take his pills and the next day he reveals the secret on his chest to the townspeople before immediately dying. Right before he died, Chillingworth approached him and spoke “Thou hast escaped me” (161), causing the end of Chillingworth's malevolent actions. After Dimmesdale died, Chillingworth had nothing left to live for and he soon passed away just one year later. Chillingworth changed from a harmless man, into a man who would stop at nothing for revenge. However he became so obsessed with revenge that it became a part of him, changing him into a malicious person by nature. When he had no one to get revenge on after Dimmesdale passed on, he had no purpose in
life. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all changed throughout the course of the book. Although Hester was the only one who was given a punishment, she ended up the most prosperous out of the three. For Dimmesdale, he was never caught but he was overdriven with guilt from what he had done causing himself to fall ill. Lastly, Chillingworth drove himself mad through his sins and when he lost the ability to sin he lost all purpose. What had the greatest affect on the characters was not the sins, it was how they dealt with their sin and how they faced the consequences.
Hester Prynne, the protagonist in the book The Scarlet Letter, has committed the sin of adultery, but learned to use that mistake as a form of strength. Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, sent her to America and was supposed to follow her, but never arrived in Boston. While Hester was waiting on Chillingworth, she had an affair with the town minister, Dimmesdale. As a result, Hester gave birth to a beautiful daughter and was forced to wear the scarlet
In The Scarlet Letter, the main characters Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale are tangled in a web of deceit, which is the result of a sin as deadly as the Grimm Reaper himself: adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, describes the feeling of deceit using the main characters; for each of the cast the reaction to the deceit is different, thus the reader realizes the way a person reacts to a feeling differs between each character.
Dimmesdale. At first his expression had been calm, meditative, and scholar-like. "Now, there was something ugly and evil in his face, which they [people of the town] had not previously noticed, and which grew still the more obvious to sight the oftener they looked upon him.'; (Chpt. 9, p. 155) While pretending to be Dimmesdale's trusted confidant and physician, Chillingworth is actually slaying him by means of medicine and mental torture.
Years ago, Hester promised Chillingworth to keep his identity a secret, thus allowing him to do evil to Dimmesdale. Chillingworth believes that it was his fate to change from a kind man to a vengeful fiend. He believes that it’s his destiny to take revenge and thus would not stop until he does so.
The Scarlet Letter involves many characters that go through several changes during the course of the story. In particular, the young minister Dimmesdale, who commits adultery with Hester, greatly changes. He is the moral blossom of the book, the character that makes the most progress for the better. It is true that Dimmesdale, being a minister, should be the role model of the townspeople. He is the last person who should commit such an awful crime and lie about it, but in the end, he confesses to the town. Besides, everybody, including ministers, sin, and the fact that he confesses illustrates his courage and morality.
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 Arthur Dimmesdale. The vile physician offers his ‘help’ to the sickly Reverend, but he gives the exact opposite. Chillingworth inflicts daily, mental tortures upon Arthur Dimmesdale for seven long years, and he enjoys it. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all connected by their sins and shame, but what they do in regards to those sins is what sets them apart from each other.
Now, one could state that Hester also sins against the eighth commandment. She never reveals the name of her daughter's father. And it is stated that one must always tell the truth. Yet, it also states that one must keep a secret whenever asked to do so, and not say anything to damage another's reputation (Gerber 27). So Hester, in fact, did not sin. She n...
[INTRO] Chillingworth is the worst sinner because he committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, an unforgivable sin.
The Scarlet Letter illustrates that the illumination of self-deception gapes open after one like the very jaws of hell. This is apparent through all the main characters of the novel. Although Hawthorne's work has several imperfect people as the main characters, including Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, the worst sinner is Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth commits the greater sin because of his failure to forgive; he has an insatiable appetite for revenge; he receives extreme pleasure in torturing Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne, however, has committed sins of almost the same magnitude.
Even though she sinned she had the child and kept from others the father to be known. For as Chillingworth and Dimmesdale they kept their secrets hidden while Hester faced her sins and faced the consequences of her actions. Hester is forgiven because she admits her sins and accepts all of her
Upon first meeting Hester in jail, Chillingworth poses as a doctor and cares for Hester and Pearl. Chillingworth admits he knew that Hester never loved him, and that he believes he is, in part, responsible for Hester’s sins. Chillingworth believed that Hester was a beautiful young girl, and acknowledges that he had been “misshapen since birth”, and knows she was forced into a loveless marriage with him. He blames himself for being unable to satisfy Hester’s needs, and says that they are even. Chillingworth’s acceptance and forgiveness of Hester’s sins establishes him as a sympathetic character prior to his evil doings. If Chillingworth was not born as an inherently evil man, his sins must have come from extenuating circumstances. While Chillingworth forgives Hester, he states he will discover the man who has wronged them both, and that “there is a sympathy that will make [Dimmesdale] conscious of [Chillingworth]. It is Chillingworth’s inability to forgive the man who impregnated Hester that truly began his psychological unravelling. Chillingworth was not born with nor did he enter the Massachusetts Bay Colony with evil
Even though Hester and Dimmesdale have sinned gravely as well, there is a key difference between them and Chillingworth. Along with Hester, Dimmesdale feels guilty for his sin. The only reason he does not admit it is because he is naïve and fears judgment of her peers more than that of God. On the other hand, Chillingworth knows he has done wrong, but he doesn’t care and shows no remorse for his actions. Close to the end of the novel, Chillingworth says to Hester, “I have left thee to the scarlet letter….If that have not avenged me, I can do no more” (Hawthorne 161). Chillingworth is so ruthless and evil that he even desired revenge against his wife. Not only does he leave her to the scarlet letter, he makes sure it had fulfilled his desire. Lastly, at the very end of the novel, as Dimmesdale dies on the scaffold, he yells to Chillingworth, "May God forgive thee….Thou, too, hast deeply sinned!” (Hawthorne 240). Small things, such as this quote, emphasize to the reader how serious Chillingworth’s sins
When Chillingworth learns that Dimmesdale was the man who commits the adulteress act with his wife he becomes fixated on getting revenge. His thirst for revenge was the only objective on his mind “This unhappy person had effected such a transformation by devoting himself, for seven years, to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence,” (Hawthorn 157). Due to his fixation on revenge Chillingworth’s physical features have declined as he is now appearing as a mere replica of the devil as he begins embracing the evil that lurks within him. Dimmesdale has no other objectives each day besides causing chaos and this takes a toll on his body. After Dimmesdale delivers his sermon Chillingworth attempts to stop Hester and Dimmesdale from sharing the truth about their relationship in fear that they become happier than him. As Chillingworth rushes to the marketplace and his appearance is noted as he “thrust himself through the crowd, --or perhaps, so dark, disturbed, and evil was his look, he rose out of another region, --to snatch back his victim from what he sought to do!,” (235). Now, there is no point of return for Chillingworth not a glimpse of his previous self can be found in the fiend standing in the marketplace. The devil has crawled into his heart clutching it, causing his physical
Hester Prynne’s sin was adultery. This sin was regarded very seriously by the Puritans, and was often punished by death. Hester’s punishment was to endure a public shaming on a scaffold for three hours and wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest for the rest of her life in the town. Although Hawthorne does not pardon Hester’s sin, he considers it less serious than those of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Hester’s sin was a sin of passion. This sin was openly acknowledged as she wore the "A" on her chest. Hester did not commit the greatest sin of the novel. She did not deliberately mean to commit her sin or mean to hurt others.
It is told that a woman carrying a newborn child is escorted out of the prison and into the public town square to be shamed. We learn she has a scarlet letter A embroidered on her bosom, and that this A stood for the fact that she committed adultery. We also learn the name of this woman, which is Hester Prynne. The man whom she committed adultery is unknown to the world, and many people are trying to get Hester to confess who her lover is, but she refused to do so. “And who, by your favour, Sir, may be the the father of yonder babe… which Mistress Prynne is holding in her arms? “Of a truth, friend, that matter remaineth a riddle… Madame Hester absolutely refuseth to speak, and the magistrates have laid their heads together in vain” (Hawthorne 18). No matter how hard the magistrates of the town tried. Hester kept her lover's identity a