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Scarlet Letter

Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne uses several different themes in his novel, The Scarlet Letter; one of the themes Hawthorne uses is sin. The Bible teaches that sin is bad and hated by God. The Bible also teaches that the greater the sin is, the greater the punishment is deserved. The characters deal with the sin of adultery. Hester Prynne, the adulteress while still being in wedlock with Roger Chillingworth; Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the adulterer while still being a Reverend; and Roger Chillingworth, a man who lives only to seek revenge are the three characters that deal with this sin the most. Who commits the greater sin? Hester Prynne seems to be a person who can be trusted. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth [Prynne], sent her to New England to make a home for Roger’s return. Hester did get a home together. She lets her passion for Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, however, get in the way of what she really needed to be doing. Hester never lies about her sin with Dimmesdale, but she never fully comes out with the whole truth. “[The letter] is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!” (51) Hester does not want to put Dimmesdale in a worse situation than he already is in, so she never gives his name as her fellow-sinner. Instead, she carries the shame for the both of them. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a man of the cloth, lets his passion for Hester get in the way of his relationship with God. Dimmesdale wants to tell the townspeople that he is Hester’s fellow-sinner. Hester does not want him to because she does not want him to be shunned by his people. Not confessing causes his guilt to eat away at him. He tries to confess his sin to God, but never does. “[He is] kept silent by the very constitution of [his] nature...Guilty [is] as [he] may be, retaining, nevertheless, a zeal for God’s glory and man’s welfare, [he] shrinks from displaying [himself] black and filthy in the view of men...[he] goes about among [his] fellow-creatures looking pure as new-fallen snow while [his] heart [is] all speckled and spotted with iniquity of which [he] cannot rid [himself].” (101) Dimmesdale wants to reveal to his people his sin, but when he finally does, he dies shortly afterwards. Roger Chillingworth, a physician, comes to New England after Hester has had her baby, Pearl. Roger decides that the only thing he is going to live for is to seek revenge, never once feeling guilty about this decision. “Thou wilt not reveal his name? Not the less he is mine...He bears no letter of infamy wrought into his garment, as thou dost; but I shall read it on his heart. yet fear not for him! Think not that I shall interfere with Heaven’s own method of retribution, or, to my own loss, betray him to the gripe of human law. Neither do thou imagine that I shall contrive aught against his life; no, nor against his fame, if, as I judge, he be a man of fair repute. Let him live! Let him hide himself in outward honour, if he may? Not the less he shall be mine!” (57) Chillingworth moves in with Dimmesdale, acting as a leech (a doctor) to him. He wants to keep Dimmesdale alive only to torment him by seeking revenge on him and reminding him of his sin. Who commits the greater sin? Is it Hester for adultering while still being in wedlock with Chillingworth? Is it Dimmesdale for adultering while being a man of God? Is it Chillingworth for living only to seek revenge and never once feeling guilty about it? Chillingworth seems to have the greater of the sins. He lives only for the revenge, nothing more. However, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale both suffer the same punishment from God, in the end--death. Dimmesdale’s death could also be viewed as a freedom from his guilt instead of as a punishment. God punishes Chillingworth greater than he punishes Dimmesdale or Hester because Chillingworth’s sin is greater. The Scarlet Letter teaches about the actions and results of sin. God teaches that confessing sins is better than letting sin eat away. Letting it eat away would cause the punishment to be greater. “Do not seek revenge or bear grudge against your people.” Leviticus 19:18 Bibliography:

Word Count: 731