How Does Nathaniel Hawthorne Use Lies In The Scarlet Letter

I R P Assignment Rough Draft

The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne is an age old novel. The story revolves around the actions of a woman, Hester Prynne, who committed the act of adultery and has to bare on her chest the scarlet letter “A”. The main conflict in the story is the fact that the people of the town have no way to identify the father of Hester’s illegitimate child. Other major conflicts involve Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingsworth, who also deceives the town by never announcing his marital status to Hester in order to find his wife’s secret lover, and Arthur Dimmesdale, the supposed respectable man of the cloth, who has the affair with Hester.. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, the use of secrecy and lies create

Hester’s deceit was widespread to her the town, her husband, and her daughter. The reason she lied to the town and Roger chillingsworth was simple, safety. Not safety of her own, but safety for the man she truly loved, Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the entirety of the novel, Hester hides her loves identity. She does this for his protection. Arthur was a priest, grave things would have happened to him if he had admitted to being an adulterer and betraying the church. In order to assure his safety, she made sure to keep the information of the lover only to herself. “Hester's sins are the deceit of her child, as well as hiding her father’s identity” but these are the only sins. Hester did not selfishly sin. She committed the sins in order to make sure that others were protected from the harsh townspeople that may hurt them. Hester kept the identity of her love a secret, even to Pearl. Pearl could not know who her father was. With the constant bombardment and questions about it, Hester knew Pearl would not be able to handle the pressure. Hester wanted to keep Pearls mind clear so that she could not find herself in any trouble, pearl could not lie if she had not known therefore could not be guilty of anything. Out of all the sins and lie committed in this novel, Hester’s were the only one’s committed out of