Honesty, Integrity, and Consequences in the Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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‘Honesty is the best policy’; ‘Always be yourself”, are common phrases many parents tell their children and as common as they may be, being honest and being true yourself contributes to individual happiness and contentness. ‘The Scarlet Letter’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel that dives deep into these key themes of honesty and integrity and the consequences of doing the opposite action. One of the main characters, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is a minister in 17th century Puritan New England who has deteriorating health because of his lies and guilt. Dimmesdale commits adultery with a beautiful woman in the town, Hester Prynne, whose husband, Roger Chillingworth, returns from Europe later on. Pearl, who is a product of Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin, is never told who her father is. Dimmesdale gives sermons on sin and honesty yet hides his own sin. He is portrayed as a hypocrite and has inner battles with himself because he deceives people of his true nature. Hawthorne uses the character Dimmesdale to portray the harsh consequences of not being true to ourselves and being deceitful of our true nature.
Dimmesdale suffers greatly because of the consequences of his refusal to acknowledge his sin and is therefore portrayed as a hypocrite because does not confess his sin still continues to act as a well-respected minister. When the reader is first introduced to Dimmesdale they do not realize he is a hypocrite until later in the book. His hypocrisy is first made apparent when Hester is on a platform in front of the town as punishment and Dimmesdale is called to force Hester to confess who the father is:

“Hester Prynne,” said he [Dimmesdale], leaning over the balcony and looking down steadfastly into...

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... of truth. At the end of the novel Hawthorne draws a conclusion from the story that “Among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister’s miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence-- Be true! Be true! Be true!” (Hawthorne 246). Hawthorne uses Dimmesdale to represent the consequences of treachery and living in lies. He shows the reader that deceiving ourselves and others can only bring harm and agony and the best way to do things is to always be true to ourselves and others.

Works Cited

Donoghue, Denis. “Hawthorne and Sin.” Gale Student Resources in Context. Detroit;
Gale, 2001. Student Resources In Context. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Signet Classics, 2009. Print.
“Themes and Construction: The Scarlet Letter.’ EXPLORING Novels. Detroit: Gale, 2003.
Student Resources in Context. Web. 21 Jan. 2014

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