“Come away, mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away, mother, or he will catch you! But he cannot catch little Pearl!” (Hawthorne 123). Even as a young child, Pearl Prynne knew that there was evil in the world. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter and set the book in 17th century Boston, Massachusetts because he was questioning the Puritan lifestyle and whether it was right or not. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict good and evil among the characters Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Even though Hester Prynne was at first dark, she redeemed herself and still helped in the community after the townspeople shunned her and Pearl. Hester is a Puritan woman who is the main character. She had an affair and became pregnant, having Pearl. She refuses to name her fellow sinner, so she is punished by the townspeople endlessly alone. “Ye shall not take her! I will die first!” …show more content…
He never comes forward so he is punished privately by himself, because he never came forward and admitted his crime. “Do I feel joy again? This is already a better life!” (Hawthorne 185). Author has accepted that he has sinned and he can feel the weight of his guilt being lifted off of him. Joy can only be felt by someone pure and with the acceptance of his sin, Dimmesdale is pure again. In Mr. Dimmesdale’s secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourage. Dimmesdale felt that to rid himself of his sins, he must whip himself until the sin is gone and he feels better. Because he never admitted to his sin, he has to pay for it in private, while Hester is openly punished in public by the townspeople. Even though Dimmesdale was a preacher and supposedly a man of God, he never admitted to his sin until the end and he made Hester suffer all alone for both of their