Secret Sin And Guilt Theme In The Scarlet Letter

Secret Sin and Guilt In ‘’The Scarlet Letter’’ written by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hester Prynne committed a sin adultery with her minister Reverene Dimmesdale. While her husband was on journey with the Indians he learned lots of skill. While he was gone Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale had a baby name Pearl. Dimmesdale was dying inside from guilt for not letting the people know that he committed the sin that Hester Prynne committed. Hester Prynne husband Roger Chillingsworth was seeking revenge against the person who committed the sin that his wife Hester Prynne committed. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne strengthens the theme of secret sin and guilt through Reverene Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne Both Hester and Dimmesdale hide secret from everybody in the town. For

This is illustrated when the narrator says, “Man had marked this woman’s sin by a scarlet letter, which had such a potent and disastrous efficacy that no human sympathy could reach her save it were sinful like” (Hawthorne 81). This is because the word potent and disastrous means having great power and causing damage. The people didn’t have any sympathy for Hester for her sin. She was supposed to be put to death. In addition, the narrator says, “most of the spectators testified to having seen, on the breast of the minister, a Scarlet Letter the very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynne imprinted in the flesh” (Hawthorne 230). The denotation for the word semblance is being used by the outward appearance the scarlet letter. The word semblance has positive meaning to it because it talks about discipline. Therefore Dimmesdale had been hiding that he was the person who sinned like Hester until he confessed.”The scarlet letter burned on Hester Prynne’s bosom. Here was another ruin, the responsibility of which came partly home to her” (Hawthorne 154). The denotation for the word responsibility having a duty to deal with something