Hypocrisy is defined as the practice of claiming to have moral standards of beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform. Multiple characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter clearly fit this definition. The characters of the novel are forced into hypocrisy to satisfy the expectations of society and to avoid their fear of living the rest of their lives with ignominy. The characters are often times hypocritical without realizing they are. Hester believes she is making the morally right decision to accept her punishment for committing adultery, but personally believes that she did not actually commit a sin. Hester attempts to justify her actions to Chillingworth when she says, “thou knowest that I was frank with thee.