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Theme Of Concealment In The Scarlet Letter

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In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne establishes several essential facets of human nature. In the beginning, Hawthorne introduces death and crime as inevitable in the human condition. Yet throughout the novel, Hawthorne also highlights another essential part of human nature as a common theme: concealment. This theme is reflected by characters such as Hester and Chillingworth, but particularly by Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale, the admired minister of the Puritan community, spends years hiding that he committed adultery with Hester, and doesid so to protect the Puritans. However, the minister hurt himself in the process, as he feelst unworthy due to his inauthenticity. Hawthorne also depicts the Puritan people as rigid, and unable to accept the world as it truly is. Although Dimmesdale demonstrates an altruistic motivation in concealing his sin, Hawthorne uses the community’s stubborn manipulation of perspective and Dimmesdale’s continuous suffering to argue that no matter the intention, concealment is pointless.
As Dimmesdale conceals his sin to protect the Puritan people, he suffersed for years and hurts himself continuously, portraying the negative effects of concealment. …show more content…

While concealment is a part of human nature, it is not inevitable. Through Dimmesdale, Hawthorne teaches that concealment is an error to be avoided, and can very clearly be avoided by living openly with the sin. But only accepting the sin is not sufficient, Hawthorne also argues that the society needs reformation: in order for sin to be accepted and concealment to be abolished, the community needs to open its mind to allow for that. Hawthorne spreads a message of forgiveness, like the rosebush in the first chapter, society needs to reach out and offer hope to everyone, even those stained by sin. After all, concealment only leads to hopeless

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