Sin And Punishment In The Scarlet Letter

The concept of sin and redemption is one that many people interpret differently. In “The Scarlet Letter,” Arthur Dimmesdale, a reverend who committed adultery with a woman named Hester Prynne, found his own opinions of sin and redemption to change as he underwent his process of moving past his own mistakes. Although Dimmesdale initially argues that sins may be redeemed through publicly admitting fault of all parties involved and facing earthly punishment, he ultimately comes to suggest that repentance through a divine figure is the true path to redemption. In his first speech from the pulpit, Dimmesdale makes an argument that one is able to redeem himself through a public admission of sin.

In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author is trying to convey to the reader his definition of sin through the many symbols in the novel. Three of the symbols that Hawthorne used would be Pearl, black weeds, and Chillingworth. Hawthorne's definition of sin is what seems wrong is wrong, this is proved through Pearl, the black weeds, and Chillingworth which are some of many symbols of Hawthorne's throughout The Scarlet Letter. “How strange, indeed! Man had marked this woman’s sin by a scarlet letter, which had such potent and disastrous efficacy that no human sympathy could reach her, save it were sinful like herself.

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

There are many characters in The Scarlet Letter. Each of these characters sins in various ways, but the one that commits the greatest sin is Chillingworth. Chillingworth, instead of forgiving Dimmesdale, decides, with vile hate in his heart the whole time, to torment him. This tormenting lasts several years and reduces Dimmesdale to a feeble state in mind and body.

"In freedom most people find sin.” This John Green quote is true for every symbol of sin in The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynn has freedom when her husband leaves; while he is gone she has an affair with Author Dimmesdale. Hester becomes pregnant and the townspeople force her to wear a scarlet ‘A’. Throughout The Scarlet Letter Nathanial Hawthorn deals with sin through symbolism.

Everyone is a sinner in the eyes of God. Each and every soul has peculiarly different

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

A sin doesn’t always identify its committer. A symbol of scorn can be turned into something else with the right amount of determination. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the scarlet letter is meant to be a symbol of shame to Hester; however, it becomes a powerful symbol of identity for her. The scarlet letter represents her individualism, her strength to overcome the image her peers tried to enforce upon her, as well as her willingness to aid others.

To take this away, is to take away the feeling of being human and one then turns into “marble coldness” as Hester Prynne did (150). These ordinances are taken directly from the Bible, to the point that religion and law are nearly identical. Their methods of punishment are "outrages against human nature", as criminals are publicly humiliated on the scaffold, not being able to hide their faces (53). Hawthorne criticizes these methods of punishment and in turn the Puritan society, calling the scaffold "to be as effectual an agent, in the promotion of good citizenship, as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists of France” (52). The Puritans who view themselves as God’s Chosen

In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the lives of Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth to emphasize the themes of hypocrisy and sin within the Puritan society by stressing the relevance of forgiveness, the negative outcome of not returning to righteousness, and the austere need for compassion in the Bostonian community. Through Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth’s habitation among the Puritans, Hawthorne demonstrates themes of hypocrisy embedded in his story in order to portray a lasting moral concerning the need for clemency. First of all, Hawthorne intricately constructs Hester by narrating about the insincere behavior of the townspeople—accentuating the impact of pretentiousness in society. He writes through the eyes of the “ugliest

Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her chest, as punishment. Dimmesdale, however continues his practice as a minister, as no one knows that he is the adulterer. The Scarlet Letter is centered around three characters: Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger

). There has been plenty of analysts who has compared Hawthorne’s stories together and found concluded that sin is one thing that we are all born with, but to act on sin is not forced upon anyone. Sin is conducted by temptation and then your own personal choice. It has been assumed that Mr. Hooper’s sin committed is adultery. When a sin is committed one is usual judged by their acts.

The burden that the scarlet letter places on Hester shows her everlasting battle with sin in the Puritan society. Yet, the Puritans seemed to be more fascinated with on its striking qualities rather than the true representation of the letter. The scarlet letter is supposed to represent shame, but as Hester evolves the symbol of the letter becomes an emblem of strength. One writer criticizes Hester's transformation by saying, “Hester’s rise takes her from low on the line of moral value, a ‘scarlet woman’ guilty of a sin black in the eyes of the Puritans, as she becomes a sister of mercy and light” (Waggoner

“Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us” (Hawthorne 51)? Set in a Puritan community, Hester Prynne asked her distant husband Roger Chillingworth this question in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter in hopes that he would cease his sinful obsession with revenge. Despite her crime of adultery, Prynne realizes in the end that all people are capable of sin, including the Minister. Puritanism was a strict religion that feared sin greatly and held purity at a high regard. Ironically enough, the severity of the religion often lead to sinfulness. Hawthorne conveyed in his novel that the Puritans were riddled with sin by using the symbolism of the rosebush and the prison.

In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, there is a notion of sin and redemption. Was Hester Prynne the only one who committed a sin that required her to redeem herself to society? Hester Prynne had committed adultery in which has broken the sacred vow of marriage which then entitles society to judge her label her with the “A” on her breast. The outcome of her adultery was a new born baby girl who is both beautiful and kind but due to the judgment of her mother she was also labeled as the living embodiment of the scarlet letter on Hester’s chest. Both of these judgments are all rooted from the Christian church, which during that time had one of the greatest influence and power on society.