Scarlet Letter Guilt Quotes

Without an honorable reputation a person is not worthy of respect from others in their society. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the struggle to shake off the past is an underlying theme throughout the novel. Characters in this novel go through their lives struggling with trying to cope with the guilt and shame associated with actions that lost them their honorable reputation. Particularly, Hawthorne shows the lasting effect that sin and guilt has on two of the main characters in the book: Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale.

Dimmesdale is a symbol of dishonesty and is a self-centered individual; he knows what he must do in order to make it honorable but lacks the courage and confidence to make himself public. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester tells Dimmesdale that the ship for Europe leaves in four days. He is delighted with the matter of being able to "fulfill his public duties" and give his Election Sermon before leaving. Although from this disdainful act, he worries that the congregation may notice the features found in Pearl’s face may be identical to his

“This unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge” (Hawthorne 311) This passage is referring to Roger Chillingworth after the death of Reverend Dimmesdale. Ever since Roger had discovered Hester’s sin years ago, he had made it his mission to find the man who had stolen his wife from him and to have revenge on him. He modeled his entire life in New England around it. It consumed him to the point that he refused to give up until the man who had done this to him had gotten what he deserved.

The Scarlet Letter is a novel about a Puritan woman who has committed adultery and must pay for her sin by wearing a scarlet “A'; on her bosom. The woman, Hester Prynne, must struggle through everyday life with the guilt of her sin. The novel is also about the suffering that is endured by not admitting to one’s wrongs. Reverend Mister Dimmesdale learns that secrecy only makes the guilt increase. Nathaniel Hawthorne is trying to display how guilt is the everlasting payment for sinful actions. The theme of guilt as reparation for sin in The Scarlet Letter is revealed through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of northeastern, colonial settings, various conflicts, and

Is the story about frustration of revenge or victory over shame? This story could go either way. It could be all about Roger Chillingworth’s revenge and hate towards Arthur Dimmesdale or it also could be about Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale, about how they overcome their fear of shame and take responsibility for their sins. Even though both play a huge roll in this story it is mainly about the victory over the shame of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale.

Set in seventeenth-century Boston, “The Scarlett Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story of principal human values and the consequences if said values are replaced with deceit and falsehood. Sincerity and honesty are indirectly pinned as requisites by Hawthorne in order to be a genuine and sane person in society. This is best expressed in the line, "No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.” Hawthorne continued his claim by recounting the stories of Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth who all went about deceit differently or not at all.

In the beginning, God created a beautiful and perfect world void of darkness and full of light. However, it did not take long for humans to wreck the goodness of the world they lived in. Their decision to sin brought a number of unfortunate consequences, one of which is shame. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne presents the concept of shame as a prevalent idea at work in characters throughout the book. The story follows Hester Prynne’s life after committing adultery, as well as the difficulties she faces and the character of her young daughter, Pearl.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's bold novel, The Scarlet Letter, revolves around sin and punishment.  The main characters of the novel sharply contrast each other in the way they react to the sin that has been committed

“On one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him." Chapter 1, pg. 46

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne paints a picture of two equally guilty sinners, Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale, and shows how both characters deal with their different forms of punishment and feelings of remorse for what they have done. Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale are both guilty of adultery, but have altered ways of performing penance for their actions. While Hester must pay for her sins under the watchful eye of the world around her, Reverend Dimmesdale must endure the heavy weight of his guilt in secret. It may seem easier for Reverend Dimmesdale to live his daily life since he is not surrounded by people who shun

The transgressions that Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale perpetrates all begin when he commits adultery, and that causes him to reject his own daughter Pearl and her mother Hester. However, he still puts forward various different forms of atonement to pay for the awful wrong doings. When Hester is standing upon the scaffold Dimmesdale along with the other clergymen “stood in a

        Pearl primarily serves the role of silently urging Dimmesdale to overcome the pressures to conform to society, and to allow his guilty inner-self to emerge and receive retribution for his sins. She exists as a constant and living reminder and product of the sin Hester and Dimmesdale committed, and acknowledges the false innocence Dimmesdale tries so desperately to maintain. Her inquisition, "Why does he not wear [a scarlet letter] outside his bosom as thou dost?" (ch 16) to her mother concerning Dimmesdale is evidence of this. Pearl has no chance to conform to society because at birth she is regarded

Arthur Dimmesdale, a minister, lives his life under the watchful yet admiring eye of the townspeople of Boston and, as a result, becomes a slave to the public opinion. His sin against Hester and Pearl is that he will

An additional example of Dimmesdale’s hypocrisy is the fact that he professes his love for Hester and Pearl, yet it is always when they are hidden from their fellow townsmen. When Pearl notices this, she tells Hester:

The town punishes Hester for what she has done, but they also, without knowing, that they also punish Dimmesdale for his guilt. In the start of The Scarlet Letter Hester is asked who she has committed adultery with by Dimmesdale. He know who should be up on the scaffold with her, but he asks to see if she will convulse the information to the town. She does not tell the town who the father is, so Dimmesdale’s guilt starts. Throughout the novel Dimmesdale’s physical and mental health decline. The main cause for this is him not sharing that he is Pearl’s father. He feels that he has let punished Hester more by having her suffer, not just her punishment, but also his. Dimmesdale displays his guilt during the scene when the governor wants to take Pearl away from Hester. Hester pleads against the governor saying that they should not take away the only thing she loves. Hester also says that Pearl may be the way that she can amend her sin. Dimmesdale throughout this section refuses to make eye contact with Hester. This action from Dimmesdale shows that he regrets not telling the town at the beginning what he did. Now the guilt has built up and he starts to have the effects of this mentally as well as physically change him. When Chillingworth starts to torture him he starts to become afraid of both what will happen to him as well as fear from the secrecy of Chillingworth. Chillingworth recites a story about a new herb he has found “I found the flowers growing on a