r is questioning herself due to her guilt, and she even question whether it is worth living if your life is so tainted. Although it causes Hester great pain, it is better for Hester to suffer openly about her guilt in public because she eventually comes to terms with it. Hawthorne shows the evolution of the letter, “The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss” . Hester is eventually seen as just another person in the community, and the scarlet letter is taken to mean Able instead of Adulteress.Dimmesdale in contrast hides his sins, and the guilt eats away at him. From the first scene when he asks the townspeople to forgive Hester, all he really wants is for himself to be forgiven by the townspeople, by himself, and most importantly by god. Although Pearl is also a reminder to him of his guilt, she is not as hurtful, because Dimmesdale as a reverend is constantly reminded of his sins by the sermons he gives. He must always profess against the very deeds he has done and he tries to hide them still. The constant guilt he bears begins to wear on him to the point where he denies himself food and tortures himself physically; “His form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet has a certain melancholy prophecy of decay in it”(82). These are all examples of his penance, but it still is not enough. Dimmesdale tries many times to tell others of his sin but always falls just short of truly confessing. He attempts to tell the people at his church that he is a sinner and how he is far less than honorable. The people there assume he is just being modest, and he receives great acclaim for his sermons. When Roger Chillingworth is assigned to help the reverend who is obviously not in the best of health Chillingworth merely furthers Di...
