The Effects of Sin in The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and

minds of Hester, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth!

Examine The Scarlet Letter in light of this statement.

In your assignment you should consider:

1 The historical, political and cultural significance of Puritanism in

America

2 Hawthorne’s links with the Puritans

3 Methods through which Hawthorne presents the theme of sin and its

effects of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter

4 The views of other readers and critics of The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s unforgettable tale of ‘The Scarlet Letter’ takes

place in the Puritan village of Boston, Massachusetts during the first

half of the 17th century.

Hawthorne himself is a man of enlightment during this time and

considers himself not a Puritan, just a descendant. We are made aware

of this early in the text when he admits he is a descendant of the

repressive Puritans, while evidently revealing that he is also critic

of them. He continually describes his ancestors as severe Puritans

decked out in black robes, laying harsh judgment upon the people who

strayed away from their faith. He is both reverent and mocking in his

attitude towards the Puritans and we can jokingly ponder over the idea

of how an idler such as himself could have been born from such a noble

lineage. Early in the novel we see Hawthorne’s language of how he

relates to and comments on the Puritans. He uses authorial comments

when describing them to the present reader:

“Early severity of the Puritan characters…religion and law were almost

identical.”

The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and

minds the three main characters in this novel, Hester, Dimmesdale and

Chilli...

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...y Chillingworth, determined to discover who his

wife’s partner in crime was, made sure that he punished Dimmesdale. He

played a very deadly and vicious game with Dimmesdale, torturing him

for years on end and intensifying his suffering so much that Hawthorne

relates to him as being evil and then progresses it to Satan:

“But what distinguished the physicians ecstasy from Satan’s was the

trait of wonder in it.”

It is of most a story left up to the imagination, as Mark Van Doren

states:

“There was no real solution for this story, given Hester’s strength,

Dimmesdale’s weakness and Chillingworth’s perversion, than the one he

found.”

Overall we know that it was both Hester and Dimmesdale that Hawthorne

sympathized with the most. In the end Dimmesdale did publicly accepted

his sin, Pearl and the fallen woman, Hester Prynne.

“A spell had been broken.”