A Comparison Of Hester And Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter

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Many people consider sin a horrible thing. Some believe that punishment is the only way to make up for sin. Many towns used to have a lot of possible punishments for sin, among them, public humiliation and death. In The Scarlet Letter, two of the main characters have sinned by committing adultery. While having done the same crime, these two characters, Hester and Dimmesdale, still have very different consequences. Hester has to deal with the public shaming of others, and is unable to fit in with most people ever again, while Dimmesdale must deal with internal conflict. At the beginning of the book, Hester is being publicly shamed for her sin of adultery. Her punishment for her sin is that she has “to wear a mark of shame”(16) on her body,