Guilt, Revenge And Sin In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Chillingworth becomes so evil and cruel in his treatment of Arthur that it would have been better for the Reverend to die. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all sinners, but they each handle their guilt in different ways. Hester tries to earn forgiveness by acts of service. Dimmesdale allows his guilt to build up to the point that it kills him. Chillingworth becomes obsessed with getting revenge.

He cannot take the guilt which is gnawing at him inside and he is desperate to seek release. However, the shriek was only a figment of his imaginat... ... middle of paper ... .... The community sees Dimmesdale as a saint, while Hawthorne portrays him as a morally weak person who cannot confess his sin. Everyone sees Chillingworth as a betrayed husband who is betrayed by his wife. However, Hawthorne shows him to be an evil-minded person who is so consumed with vengeance and hatred that he cannot live when his victim dies.

Along with this permanent symbol, Pearl, the daughter of Hester, is the outcome of Hester’s wrong doings. We confirm throughout the story that public humiliation can be the greatest form of punishment. The scaffold is the place of public humiliation for those who have sinned. Symbols in the Scarlet Letter are constant reminders of Hester’s sin, which are always playing a key role in the accumulation of guilt. A symbol of Hester’s sin that is accumulating the guilt inside of her is the scarlet letter.

With a private guilt that Dimmesdale has, it is like torture to himself because every day he knows he has committed an unlawful act that he should be punished for. Yet, he cannot confess because he is one of the town’s ministers, which makes him someone that people look up to. In the story, not only were Dimmesdale and Hester emotionally broken, but Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, as well. It emotionally changes Roger as person, because he turns into a real evil person who is fill with hate and revenge, after he realize that his wife, Hester, had an affair and a baby with someone else. With this private guilt that Dimmesdale has within him, it starts to take a toll on his health, because his guilt builds up to a point where he psychologically and physically tortures himself.

First, she was angry, then cold and conniving. The lower she sinks the more terrible revenge she wants to reap on Jason. Medea's plan was set into motion. She has nothing to loose. She is even angrier because she betrayed her own father and her people for him.

Psychologically torturing Dimmesdale about his guilt, Chillingworth attacks Dimmesdale’s mind, making him believe that there is no way of escaping his sin. After the psychological torture, Dimmesdale hits his lowest point, being engulfed by his sin without a way of escape. Hester’s actions and the actions of her husband cause Dimmesdale’s downfall and the only way for Dimmesdale’s escape from his suffering is death. People do not live as end to themselves. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester and Dimmesdale’s choice to have an adulterous affair turns to have far reaching negative affects on their lives.

(P169). Hester admitts to causing Chillengsworth into becoming the fiend as well. The guilt rests solely on Hester Prynne for destroying not just her own life from this sin but also of many other people such as the minister Dimmesdale, the physician Chillengsworth, and her own daughter Pearl.

The evil associated with Hester's actions and the letter on her chest consume all aspects of her life, concealing her true beauty, mind, and soul” (R. Warfel 421-425). Society pushed blame upon Hester Prynne, and these events lead to the change of her life. The Puritans whom Prynne is surround by view the letter as a symbol from the devil, controversially some individuals look upon the letter, sigh and fell sympathy towards her because they have or are involved in this same situation. Nonetheless the haunting torture Hester Prynne battles daily drags on, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows this torture “of an impulse and passionate nature. She had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely wreaking itself in every variety of insult but... ... middle of paper ... ... off exhibition across her mother chest.

Have you ever committed a sin so appalling that you couldn’t tell a single soul, which, in result, gnawed away at the very foundation of passion and ecstasy in your life? The truth is every individual sins at some point. Certain people more than others and some people worse than others. What matters most is how you respond and how you let the emotional wrath of repentance take ahold of your life. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth to symbolize the effects of guilt and how destructive or reinforcing a life full of remorse can be.

The Scarlet Letter - The Suffering of the Blameless Pearl The Puritan life is based purely on sin. The Puritans believe that all people are sinners and are thus despised and hated by God. Sinners are subject to the worst punishments and suffer the worst torment. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, several characters serve as models of sinners in agony from their error. Both Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne bear the punishment of their adultery, which evidenced itself in their daughter Pearl.