Consequences In The Scarlet Letter

When it comes to sin there will always be harsh consequences, that will show in time. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne there is many examples of how the action of sinning will lead to consequences. The Scarlet letter is about a women, Hester, Cheated on her husband Chillingworth, with the town preacher Dimmsdale. As a result of the affair Hester became pregnant with Pearl. Hester was publically shamed and had to wear a Scarlet Letter because of her sin, Dimmesdale identity was hidden and it tortured him inside and this led to his slow painful death. Their sins always had harsh consequences. One theme in The Scarlet Letter deals with sin and consequence of their sins.

Hester Pyrnne is an example of someone that sinned and had to

Dimmesdale committed a very severe sin, adultery with Hester, and this was even worse for him because he was a Puritan Minister. This resulted in Hester having a baby. He had to live a very secretive hypocritical life, preaching the word of God when he directly went against it himself and no one knew pearl was his child (ch. 11). This was like torture for Dimmsdale he even had to help in the shaming of Hester. He felt like his actions took meaning out of his life, he says this because how can he do his job and feel like he’s doing right among his people when he had committed adultery (ch. 11) Dimmesdale felt like a fraud and it made him so guilty and it tore his spirit and moral into shreds! He didn’t think he was capable of leading his people to salvation because of his actions (ch. 17). The guilt of his sin wa stop hard to bear so he whipped and scourged himself, and he even held vigils where he wouldn’t let himself sleep (ch. 11). All the guilt tortured him so much that he became very weak and slowly died (ch. 23). His sins literally killed him. He was so guilty and his life was so miserable. His people would shame him and never look at him as the same person if they found out. So he had to live through the guilt in constant misery. Eventually he went in front of everyone and confessed his sins to the crowd right as he died from all the pain he had

Hester could of had a really nice life married to Chillingsworth, maybe even raised a family.She would of been very successful. She was very smart and could of had a lot going for her. Dimmesdale could of also had a much better life. He would not of lived a secret life and he would not of been so guilty and miserable. Her probably would of got married and had a family in the proper way and maintain how people viewed him as a person. From looking at both of their lives you should see that all your actions have consequences no matter how small or how big the action