Truth In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Secrets, everyone has them, they seem enjoyable. Shameful truth that has become public haunts one’s mind. On the long run however, the opposite seems more common, in The Scarlet Letter at least. In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne conveys the theme of truth in the three main characters, to show how public truth makes characters thrive, while secrets make everyone suffer.

Although Hester Prynne’s public truth grew her as a person, her secrets weakened her. For Hester Prynne, her public truth lies in her sin; her secrets being both Chillingworth’s true identity and Pearl’s father, Dimmesdale. “I [Hester] will keep thy [Chillingworth] secret, as I have his [Dimmesdale].” (Nathaniel Hawthorne 89) This sentence reveals both of Hester’s secrets, Chillingworth’s

“She [Hester] decided, moreover, that he [Dimmesdale] had a right to her utmost aid.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne 193) Hester needs to help Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale needs her help because his hidden sin made him weak; Hester can help because her revealed sin strengthens her. Her Scarlet Letter started out as a “spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself” but turned into a symbol of her helpfulness, the A meaning “Able” (Nathaniel Hawthorne 60, 196). Here readers can see that Hester overcame shame by turning it into pride, because the community admired her. In contrast to her secrets, readers can see that her public truth made her

“The injured husband” realized that “he need deal no further” with Hester, “Her punishment is sure,” but that he found that “the man too” should “be punished,” but that to punish him “he must know him.” When Chillingworth “finds him out” who Hester sinned with, he “does punish him” and “brings him to death.” (Londhe 2) He dedicates himself to finding the man Hester sinned with, because he realizes that Hester does not need punishment, so he finds the man, Dimmesdale, he tortures him both physically, through giving him medication that does more harm than good, and emotionally, through asking questions. Roger Chillingworth’s new identity came with “a new purpose; dark, it is true, if not guilty, but of force enough to engage the full strength of his faculties.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne 143) Here Hawthorne tells the reader what turned Mr. Prynne into a ‘Leech’; he gave himself a new identity and a new purpose, he become Roger Chillingworth, and his goal was not only to find, but to harm his patient, the man who Hester committed adultery with,