The Effect of Guilt in the Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Lights, camera, guilt! In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals how guilt can either destroy or improve a human being. By using revitive writing, he illustrates that no matter what position an individual holds, everyone has to fight against this emotion. Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale to show how guilt can be handled in the right or wrong way. While Dimmesdale allows guilt to consume himself, it makes Hester into a strong-willed woman by the end of the novel. In the case of Hester, a colonist, guilt transforms her into an angel to society. However, in the beginning, she commits the crime of adultery: Hester has her daughter, Pearl, without a husband. Sin alert! Not on the Puritans’ watch! Hester is then forced to wear a scarlet letter A to show her guilt, and all of the colonists know about her guilty act. Even though Hester is ostracized by the community, she is able to use that as an advantage. Hester is able to knit in peace, and her needlework provides for herself and Pearl. “She possessed an art that sufficed, even in a land that afforded comparat...

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