Guilt And Sin In The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter: Effects of Guilt and Sin

The underlying and most prominent theme throughout The Scarlet Letter is the theme of guilt and sin. While the main characters in this novel, Hester Prynne and the Reverend Dimmesdale, are connected through their guilt and sin, their reactions to it, and their handling of it, are entirely different. The effects of guilt and sin on these characters, the very thread that binds them, determine their character’s ultimate growth and/or demise. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester embraces her sin and forms her identity while wearing the scarlet letter on the outside. Conversely, Dimmesdale denies his sin and imprisons his identity, like the mark he conceals on his chest, on the inside. Hawthorne

Hester has been sentenced to prison as a result of her transgression. Upon emerging from the prison door, Hester carries the product of her sin, her baby daughter Pearl, in her arms on her way to the marketplace, “the place appointed for her punishment” (pg. 83). It is here that she is to endure the ridicule and mockery of the community, with the scarlet letter “A” (symbolizing her adultery), sewn into her dress. The rude market-place of the Puritan, settlement, with all the townspeople assembled, and levelling their stern regards at Hester Prynne—yes, at herself—who stood on the scaffold of the pillory, an infant on her arm, and the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom. (pg.

Dimmesdale, a devout man, is held in the highest of regard within their Puritan community. He is a learned man, schooled in university in England. “His eloquence and religious fervour had already given the earnest of high eminence in his profession” (pg. 100). His position in the church, and his sermons, held sway over his flock, affecting them “like tile speech of an angel” (pg. 101). Yet Dimmesdale, this religious man of character and stature, is unable to admit to his sin and ultimately turns away from it. ‘Good Master Dimmesdale,’ Governor Bellingham declared, ‘the responsibility of this woman’s soul lies greatly with you. It behoves you; therefore, to exhort her to repentance and to confession, as a proof and consequence thereof ‘(pg. 100). Yet while knowing her soul’s fate lies in his hands, when Hester refuses to name him as the father, Dimmesdale, hand clutching his heart, simply murmurs ‘she will not speak’ and draws back “with a long respiration” (pg. 104). While imploring Hester to reveal the father’s child, Dimmesdale exclaims “though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so than to hide a guilty heart through life” (pg.102). So while again he nervously beseeches Hester to reveal the father’s name, when she refuses, he remains silent. Dimmesdale denies his responsibility and sin, and