Guilt In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Ever seen someone’s guilt eat them from the inside out? If not, it is certainly evident in The Scarlet Letter, a book skillfully written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter is a novel about a puritan woman, Hester Prynne, the protagonist, in the 1600s, who bearsbare public punishment through two tokens of sin, her child, and the scarlet letter she must wear on her chest. The protagonist, Hester Prynne, wears a scarlet letter representing adultery to atone for her sin. Dimmesdale, the man she committed adultery with, is the town's minister who can do no wrong. Hester and Dimmesdale's child, Pearl, is a strange mischievous child born from sin. Rejected from society, Hester and her child live as outcasts in a small cottage on the edge of

While conversing with one another, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth notice Pearl and Hester outside the window, walking along a grave. Pearl skips from one grave to another until she comes across a flat tombstone and begins to dance on it. Before fleeing to her mother, Pearl stumbles across a tall burdock beside the headstone, and after picking the burrs, she heads back to Hester. The burrs Hawthrone uses to imply guilt are especially noticeable when he says, “Taking a handful of these, she arranged them along the lines of the scarlet letter that decorated the maternal bosom, to which the burrs, as their nature was, tenaciously adhered. Hester did not pluck them off.” (Hawthorne 130). As “their nature was, tenaciously adhered,” is how Hawthorne explains how burrs naturally cling as guilt does. The author continues by stating, “Hester did not pluck them off,” demonstrating that, unlike Dimmesdale, Hester acknowledges her sin rather than ignoring it. Both men approach the window to observe Hester and her child better. As they discuss what Pearl is or whether she could ever do good, they notice little Pearl at the bottom of the window with a luminous naughty smile, holding burrs. It is clear that the burrs are connected to guilt when Hawthorne writes, “...she threw one of the prickly burrs at the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale. The sensitive clergyman

While walking with Pearl, Hester runs into Chillingworth in a secluded part of the peninsula. To have a conversation with Chillingworth, Hester tells Pearl to play. The two then begin discussing Hester's scarlet letter and whether or not Hester should continue wearing it. Hester can not help but notice how evil and greedy Chillingworth has become and grows frustrated with him. Hawthrone shows how Chillingworth is a symbol for Leech when he states, “This unhappy person had effected such a transformation, by devoting himself, for seven years, to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures which he analyzed and gloated over.” (Hawthorne 166). Hawthorne demonstrates how Chillingworth is sucking out information from Dimmesdale and thriving off his guilt and self-hate. In the same way, Chillingworth treats Dimmesdale, leeches feed on people and suck blood from them. After their conversation, Hester tells Dimmesdale the secret she has been hiding; Chillingworth is her husband. Sometime later, Dimmesdale and Hester meet in the woods and question one another’s existence. Hester tells Dimmesdale her secret, and they quickly resolve things. Leaving the settlement crosses their minds, maybe to Europe, where Chillingworth is unknown. The two agree to take a boat to Bristol, England, with Pearl. Ecstatic, Hester rips off her