Shame In The Scarlett Letter

Guilt, shame, and humiliation are just a few emotions that are often connected with a great act of sin. One great act of sin can have an effect many any lives. In Nathaniel hawthorne’s novel, The scarlett Letter, Hawthorne shows us ways one sin,can have an effect on many lives. Hawthorne teaches this lesson through, Hester Prynne and how her one “moment of weakness”, which was considered as a siin affected three main characters: Robert Chillingworth, Pearl Prynne and Minister Dimmesdale. These characters go through their lives struggling to cope with their shame, guklt, and sadness, brought by Hester’s sinful actions. Over the course of the novel, we watch how Hester’s sin affected many people in her life; it changed and damaged her long-lost husband Chillingwotrh, it physically and emotionally ruined her lover Dimmesdale and affected Pearl’s childhood

The Scarlett Lttter opens with a prison scene of Hestr Prynne being led onto a scaffold to be mocked and humiliated for her “sin”, adultery. In her arms was her baby, girl, Pearl, who was conceived through the adultery. From then on, throughout the novel,

Dimmesdale, on the other hand, was highly respected and loved in the Puritan community and was viewed as leader and a role model. Although, he was loved and respected throughout the community, Dimmesdale still had a heart full of hate and guilt. Dimmesdale lived in shame and guilt for years, for participating in an “act of crime” and carrying so much guilt because he had to watch his lover and child’s mother take the blame and be punished for their act of sin, for the both of them. This sin was such a heavy weight to carry; it began affecting his physical appearance and his health. This quote reveals that the sin was too much a burden, ti started to control his soul He tortured himself in an effort to purify him from his