Sin In Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the topic of sin during the 1700’s in Boston, Massachusetts. Hester Prynne is shunned by her town because she committed adultery with the highly idolized minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. She is alienated from society and has to find a means of support for herself and her illegitimate daughter, Pearl. Sin is seen throughout the novel and dealt with in various ways. A person’s true identity is revealed by how they cope with their sins. As punishment, Hester Prynne is faced with wearing a scarlet letter “A,” for adultery, on her chest for the rest of her life. She had a chance to leave the town and start a new life somewhere else, but instead she decided to stay and accept her sin rather than

Hester Prynne, therefore, did not flee.” (Hawthorne, 55) Hester understands that if she runs away, this would show that the society has power and control over her. It would mean she is giving into the society's thoughts of her and be fleeing from her sin because she is not able to handle. She proves to the people that she is a strong, kind hearted woman who embraces her sin instead of letting it consume her. This is the way Hester copes with her sin. Hester is strong and learns to live with her sin and to accept it. Another quote that supports the way she copes with sin is, “Lonely as was Hester’s situation, and without a friend on earth who dared to show herself, she, however, incurred no risk of want. She possessed an art that sufficed, even in a land that afforded comparatively little scope for its exercise, to supply food for her thriving infant and herself… She bore on her breast, i the curiously embroidered letter, a specimen of her delicate and imaginative skill, of which the dames of a court might gladly have

Chillingworth tries to use his words to lure Dimmesdale to confess. A supporting quote from the text is, “These men deceive themselves,… They fear to take up the shame that rightfully belongs to them. Their loe for man, their zeal for God’s service,―these holy impulses may or may not exist at the same time in their hearts with the evil inmates to which their guilt has unbarred the door, and which must needs propagate a hellish breed within them.” (Hawthorne, 97) Chillingworth is conversing with Dimmesdale and he subtly talks about good men being too scared to confess and accept the shame that rightfully belongs to them. He is trying to break Dimmesdale to the point where he will have no other choice than to confess. In order to deal with his sin of trying to achieve his revenge, he needs to do whatever it takes to expose Dimmesdale. Another quote that demonstrates how Chillingworth deals with his sin is “Hadst thou sought the whole earth over,… there was no one place so secret,―no high place nor nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me,―save on this very scaffold!” (hawthorne, 224) At the end of the novel, it is ironic that Chillingworth spent all his time trying to get revenge on Dimmesdale and in the end, he ended up confessing on his own. Now, Chillingworth does not have anything to truly live for in life and he wasted all his time trying to reveal Pearl’s father. The rest of his life