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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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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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