Hester Prynne's Deception In Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter takes place in the Massachusetts Bay colony during the 17th century. The story revolves around a young woman, named Hester Prynne, who is forced by her community to bestow a scarlet “A” on her chest for the rest of her life in order to remind her of the adulterous sin and crime she has committed. As her punishment, in the form of public humiliation, Hester is constrained to stand upon a scaffold in the town square while holding her illegitimate baby, Pearl. In the midst of the townspeople, she recognizes a familiar face; her long, lost husband who had been presumed dead at sea. He takes up the alias “Roger Chillingworth” to disguise any connection he has to Hester and to aid in his plan of revenge he has for Pearl’s father. Reverend John Wilson and the minister of her church, Arthur Dimmesdale, question Hester of the father’s identity, but she refuses to name her lover. As Pearl grows up, her behavior becomes more unruly; it is used as a motive for

Dimmesdale, despite “[fighting] back the bodily weakness--and, still more, the faintness of heart” gathered all his might to expose the truth to the townspeople who had cherished him; oblivious to the fact that he, too, committed the same sin as Hester. He had spoken of himself as “the one sinner of the world”. This phrase and scene resonates the true magnitude that this sin had burdened him with. After being eaten away by his wrong-doing all these years and having to put up a false identity for the people he preached the Word of God to, the release of the truth had finally set him free; both relieving his conscience and “[departing his] spirit.” In hindsight, the moral of The Scarlet Letter is to steer clear of sin and remain true; not only to others, but to yourself as well. Sin can only lead to disaster, unless you find a way to accept your flaws and mishaps and rise above