Hypocrisy Of Sin In Scarlet Letter

Despite the Puritans’ claim of vigilance, they often overlook sin in The Scarlet Letter. Reverend Dimmesdale is venerated as the epitome of holiness, regardless of his guilty conscience. Roger Chillingworth gains respect and power as a physician, notwithstanding his lies and secrets.The town residents claim to be cognizant, yet they remain unaware of the sinners that surround them. While Hawthorne characterizes the Puritans as devout, he uses their ignorance to sin as a mockery to highlight the hypocrisy of Puritan ideals. When evidence of Dimmesdale’s treachery seems obvious, Hawthorne ridicules the Puritans with their blatant obliviousness to the minister’s sin. Dimmesdale continuously grows weaker with his guilty conscience, but the Puritans

When Dimmesdale first meets Chillingworth, he immediately declares his distaste for the man. However, as Chillingworth continuously attempts to discover Dimmesdale’s secrets, Dimmesdale continues to deny his initial suspicions. He remains close to Chillingworth, even knowing intuitively that he was a freud. It is his blatant ignorance of sin that proves his denial of the truth: “I might have known it,’ murmured he—‘I did know it! Was not the secret told me, in the natural recoil of my heart at the first sight of him, and as often as I have seen him since? Why did I not understand?” (Hawthorne 133). Dimmesdale is subconsciously aware of Chillingworth’s sin, but denies it to himself. He does not acknowledge his own suspicions, further betraying the Puritan ideals, and continues his friendship with Chillingworth. Ironically, the man who is often compared to a serpent uncovers Dimmesdale’s sin, but the reverend fails to recognize Chillingworth’s. Instead, he remains in a state of ignorance as Chillingworth actively manipulates him to discover his secrets. Hawthorne deems Chillingworth the prosecutor, portraying the devout Puritans to be blind to obvious