Sin In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” he tells the story of a young Hester Prynne who is committed for adultery. “The Scarlet Letter” was written in the 1800’s, set in a Puritan society. Words written from the book went against the beliefs of that era, which is to be expected from a Anti-Transcendentalist writer. The themes of the book are shown in many ways mainly with symbols expressed throughout the story. In “The Scarlet Letter” Hawthorne uses the Scarlet Letter, the leech, and Pearl as the symbols to express the theme of sin within the story. First the Scarlet Letter itself is a constant reminder to Hester of her sin and to Dimmesdale for his lack of responsibility presenting his sin. The scarlet “A” is a mark given to

At this point Dimmesdale’s health is deteriorating because of his guilt. Dimmesdale moves in with Chillingworth because he is the town’s doctor but also he is Hester’s husband and he is suspicious of Dimmesdale. Hawthorne explains, “He now dug into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a miner searching for gold…” (Hawthorne 117). This quote was said to describe how Chillingworth is onto Dimmesdale’s sin and is pushing for the truth. Chillingsworth reminds Dimmesdale of his secret sin everyday by teasing the notion of sin, this caused the clergyman to slowly lose his sanity. Later on, Chillingworth has confirmed that Dimmesdale has committed the sin. He decides not to confront him because Dimmesdale’s guilt for his secret tortures him more than the leech ever could. Chillingworth says, “some hideous secret that was buried with him and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime” (Hawthorne 119). Chillingworth says this to antagonize Dimmesdale for his sin. This reminds Dimmesdale of his sin because Chillingworth is telling him indirectly that a man with secret sin will rot. The leech is Chillingworth and he uses his mind games to torture the man who had an affair with his