Sin And Guilt In The Scarlet Letter

The concept of sin and guilt, and the effect it has on those who carry it, is not a new one. Nor was it new in 1850 when Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote his most prominent and remembered novel, The Scarlet Letter. However, Hawthorne’s ideas relative to sin and punishment were rather avant-garde. In his timeless novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne unflinchingly illuminates the effects of concealed sin through his candid exploration of light and dark in the novel relative to the character of Arthur Dimmesdale in an effort to bring the reader to the realization that guilt must be openly and publicly repented for one to be free of sin and anguish.

Throughout the novel, Arthur Dimmesdale repeatedly refuses to admit his sin to the community

The second scaffold scene, where Dimmesdale stands with Hester and Pearl for the first time, occurs under the darkness of the night sky. Although he admits his relation to Hester and Pearl out in the open, none of the townspeople around to see it because it is nighttime and they are all asleep. However, just after Dimmesdale says that “the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting!”, a large, bright meteor streaks across the sky (127). This meteor not only “showed the familiar scene of the street, with the distinctness of midday”, contradicting Dimmesdale’s words and foreshadowing the end of the novel, but it bore the letter A, in dull red light (127). The meteor appears from the expansive heavens, and is meant to be a symbol from God to Dimmesdale, encouraging his open admittance of his sin. Hawthorne uses light of the meteor to represent the cold, hard, unforgiving light of truth, which shows the street “with the awfulness that is always imparted to objects by an unaccustomed light” (127). Despite the obvious portents given to him by nature, Dimmesdale keeps his sin to himself, causing further damage to his soul. When he and Hester meet alone in the woods for the first time in 7 years, only she can see him for what he truly is. However, it is still in “the shadow of the woods” that this meeting takes place, symbolizing the darkness that

Concealing his sin causes Dimmesdale endless misery, and only through stepping into the light is he able to finally receive closure and move on from this world. The dark torture of Dimmesdale’s soul and the blinding truth of his sin are a caveat to all readers: contained guilt just causes misery. Only through the open admittance and acceptance of mistakes can growth and healing