Effects Of Sin In The Scarlet Letter

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Effects of Sin- Essay Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter has three main characters who are all connected by sin. Hawthorne shows how sin affects all of the characters in different ways, and how sin can yield suffering, but it can also make one stronger, depending on how they handle the effects of their sin. Hester Prynne is an example of someone who makes the best of her situation, while Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth both suffer as a result of sinning and they become worse in mind and body. Hester Prynne committed the sin of adultery with Arthur Dimmesdale, so she was publicly humiliated in front of the entire village and forced to bear the scarlet letter upon her breast for the rest of her days as penance. Despite this, she still became a stronger person in mind, body and soul because she did not hide the fact that she committed the ignominious act of adultery, which would surely brew guilt in one who hid from the light of confession. Because Hester had confessed herself and accepted her punishment of wearing the scarlet letter, she was able to find peace because “her sin, her ignominy, were the roots which she had struck into the soil”(Hawthorne, 46). As time went on, Hester Prynne continued to live among the same Puritan community that had attempted to humiliate her, but with a higher purpose and a respectable role in the community. She no longer saw the scarlet letter as a symbol of shame, but rather, a symbol of strength. Eventually, “{the townspeople} said that {the scarlet letter} meant Abel, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength”(91). Hester Prynne made the best of a bad …show more content…
One can learn from Hester Prynne that sin does not only yield suffering for those who improve themselves, but it does indeed make those who hide behind guilt, like Dimmesdale, or the weapon of vengeance, like Chillingworth, suffer

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