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Scarlet Letter Worst Sinner

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In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, sin is an issue that is brought up frequently. The story takes place in the seventeenth century in a strict Puritan community in America. Hester Prynne is sent to America from Europe by her husband, Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth finally goes to America after two years, but Hester thinks he is dead since he does not arrive afters she does. Thinking her husband is dead, Hester decides to have an affair with the town minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. When Chillingworth finally arrives in America, he finds out about Hester and Dimmesdale’s affair and devotes his life to get revenge on Dimmesdale. After reading the novel, it is hard to decide who is the most sinful person. It may seem that Dimmesdale is the biggest sinner since he committed adultery as a minister, however, it is clear to see that Hester Prynne, the town seamstress, is the worst sinner. To start off, Hester has an affair with Reverend Dimmesdale while she is still married to Roger Chillingworth. The strict Puritan community, in which hester lives, despise anyone who commits adultery. The narrator describes the internal conflict that Hester has, knowing that she has been persecuted by the community and Dimmesdale has never experienced what she is going through. The narrator states, “She had wandered, without …show more content…

Hester does nothing to clarify to Pearl who Dimmesdale really is, but simply just dismissed of what Pearl says. There are many more scenarios where Pearl has been confused on her and her mother’s relationship with Dimmesdale. After Dimmesdale talks to Hester in the forest, Pearl asks, “Doth he love us?” (Hawthorne 207). Since Hester makes the careless mistake of committing adultery, Pearl has to live without a father and she has to wonder if he loves her. To conclude, the sins of Hester deeply affect Pearl and that is why Hester is the worst

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When Chillingworth visits Hester in prison, he claims that “his [the adulterer] fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands” (53). Chillingworth makes a vow to Hester that he will find the man who enticed her and will destroy the individual’s life and soul. As the novel progresses, Chillingworth establishes himself as the town doctor and Dimmesdale develops a mysterious illness that perplexes and worries the townspeople. His illnesses leads to Roger Chillingworth becoming his medical advisor, “as not only the disease interested the physician, but he was strongly moved to look into the character and qualities of the patient, these two men...came gradually to spend much time together” (84). Chillingworth takes advantage of the fact that Dimmesdale needs medical attention and establishes himself as a friend, with the intention of finding out personal information about Dimmesdale.

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commits a mortal sin by having an affair with a married woman, Hester Prynne. As a man of the cloth in Puritan society, Dimmesdale is expected to be the embodiment of the town’s values. He becomes captive to a self-imposed guilt that manifests from affair and his fear that he won’t meet the town’s high expectations of him. In an attempt to mitigate this guilt, Dimmesdale acts “piously” and accepts Chillingworth’s torture, causing him to suffer privately, unlike Hester who repented in the eyes of the townspeople. When Dimmesdale finally reveals his sin to the townspeople, he is able to free himself from his guilt.

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In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hester commits adultery with Dimmesdale and gets pregnant. The worst part about this sin is that this action affects so many people other than Hester. This sin affects two people in particular- Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Her action causes a man of God, Dimmesdale, to become corrupt with many other sins and Chillingworth to become obsessed with revenge. Dimmesdale, a town minister, commits adultery with Hester and is the father of her daughter.

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561 Words | 3 Pages

From the moment she conceived Pearl, Hester confessed that she had commited adultery. At frst, the townspeople looked down on Hester as just a living reminder of sin. Nevertheless, once Hester began doing charity work, “Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them”(87.) The people began to notice her more as the person she is, rather than what the scarlet “A” defined her as “The letter was the symbol of her calling.

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941 Words | 4 Pages

We are all sinners, no matter how hard we try to hide our faults, they always seem to come back, one way or another. Written in the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us Hester Prynne and how one sin can change her life completely. Hester Prynne changes a great deal throughout The Scarlet Letter. Through the view of the Puritans, Hester is an intense sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life committing the highest act of sin, adultery. For committing such a sinful act, Hester must wear the scarlet letter while also having to bear stares from those that gossip about her.

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Considering the townspeople’s reactions toward Hester’s sin of adultery, it can be concluded that in the Puritan era, religion was of utmost importance, and the Puritans met sins with extremely harsh punishments. Because the majority of the Puritan town viewed Hester as a disgrace, she became “Lonely . . . and without a friend on earth” (56). This made it effortless for the inhabitants of the town to continue to insult and degrade Hester because they did not care to learn her true personality. While a few civilians had sympathy for Hester, the town mostly regarded her as shameful and

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Hester never took her anger or frustration out on Pearl, and that took great patience from Hester. Pearl was the one who brought curiosity and happiness into Hester’s life. Undeniably, Hester truly loved Pearl, there was no doubt about that. Hester did not want Pearl to make the same mistake when she got older and Hester just wanted the absolute best for Pearl. Pearl was a strange child and Hester thought that was because of the sin she committed, but in all honesty, Pearl just looked at things in different perspective.

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562 Words | 3 Pages

When she sees Dimmesdale repeatedly placing his hand over his heart, she asks her mother why he does that. Every time she asks, Hester is reminded of Dimmesdale and how their sin keeps them apart. Whenever Pearl asks about the letter that Hester wears, she is reminded of the reason she has to wear, even if she won’t tell Pearl the real

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Hester and Dimmesdale each are equivalent in the sin that they commit, but their lives and fates are different because Hester had to repent for her crimes while Dimmesdale bottled up his guilt inside. The indirect result of Dimmesdale’s concealment of the truth was Chillingworth’s torture, which played a large role in Dimmesdale’s untimely death. Chillingworth snapped when Hester did not reveal Dimmesdale’s crimes. Hester, in part, helped Dimmesdale in

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445 Words | 2 Pages

Despite the fact that Hester isn’t good mother, Pearl has a father out there that she doesn’t know. It seems like she won’t ever since Hester is keeping him a secret. “Would it be beyond a philosopher’s research, think ye, gentlemen, to analyze that child’s nature, and, from it make a mold, to give a shrewd guess at the father?”, “Better to fast and pray upon it; and still better, it may be, to leave the mystery as we find it, unless Providence reveal it of its own accord.” (Hawthorne 102) Without a father as well she doesn’t seem to have a good

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686 Words | 3 Pages

He was the last person that people would think as a sinner. Dimmesdale was sin when he was committed adultery with Hester. He broke the law of church, but he was afraid to face the punishment and indifferent attitude from he masses. As a faithful follower, Dimmesdale also afraid the punishment of God, so he flog himself with a whip. The physical and spiral torture and the control of Chillingworth stranded him in a world that he cannot contact with others.

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Introduction During the scientific revolution in 1550 to 1800 there were two men . It was the battle of the time, Boyles and Hobbes. Hobbes thought that science should be based on logic and reason, this meant that scientist should think about their questions and come to a philosophical answer. Boyle that science should be based on empirical results which means data, he also thought that scientist should use rigorous investigation methods to answer their question.

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601 Words | 3 Pages

Hester is the biggest sinner throughout the romance and there is no reason to believe that Dimmesdale, or Chillingworth is. One main reason why Hester was the biggest sinner was because she was an adulteress to begin with. Toward the beginning of the book, the townspeople had accused her of having a baby with another man because the husband was nowhere to be seen. This is important because it ties into many other reasons as to why she is the biggest sinner.

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743 Words | 3 Pages

Some of the differences between these two characters are also what makes them alike, as well as setting them apart from the rest of the characters in the book. Hester and Dimmesdale’s need to repent and face their punishments in their own ways leads the reader through the book with surprises at every turn. The characters face challenges from holding in a secret, and facing a punishment all relating to the same actions taken before the book begins. Hester, the mother of Pearl ,as well as the main character, was

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936 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the novel, Hester is fraught by the Puritan society and her suffering is an effect of how evil society is. Hester continues to believe that the crime she committed was not wrong and she should not be punished for it. Her desire to protect and love Dimmesdale, turn her into a stronger person and become a heroine in the book. Although society still views her as a “naughty baggage” (Hawthorne 73) and is punished for her wrongdoing, Hester never thought to take revenge on them, yet she gives everything she has to the unfortunate and leaves herself with very little. She continues to stay positive no matter what society has for her.

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