Sin In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Can anyone be perfect or does everyone sin at some point in there lives, In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter is a fictional story about the Puritan society. Each of the main characters, Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, have all sinned in the novel. Hester committed adultery, Chillingworth's sin was marrying a younger woman, which later on in the novel turns into a greater sin, and Dimmesdale's sin was committing adultery with Hester. The characters that Hawthorne uses create a parallel theme with the sin that they have committed. Hawthorne uses the three individual characters' reactions as an example, what they have sinned during their lives. Hester Prynne is the main character in the novel, and also one of the strongest characters in the book. When Hester committed adultery, she was forced to wear the letter “A” on her chest, but she didn’t hide the letter. She is openly appreciative of the letter she knows that her sin was not meant to

He is less of a character in the novel but more of a symbol of the devil and doing his dirty work. Chillingworth committed the worst sin, by trying to hunt down whoever impregnated Hester. He has very little interest in Hester at all. All of the novel he was trying to make a twisted relationship with Dimmesdale. He wants to get to Dimmsdale personally to make sure his torture is long a sweet. Dimmsdale really isn't that bad of a guy, he is more of a coward more than anything else. His guilt tortures him, it takes him seven years to own up to what he done, this is sign that he is one of the biggest cowards in the novel. One of the quotes that relates to this is “If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer,” (5.2 shmoop.com). This quote depicts the character of