Sins And Sinners Of The Scarlet Letter

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Sins and Sinners of The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is brimming with many sins and sinners as Nathaniel Hawthorne attempts to portray throughout the story. Hawthorne’s main characters in the book have committed major wrongs doing in the eyes of the Puritans. The main characters include Hester, Chillingworth, demmesdale and pearl, who has yet to commit a sin. Also, a part of this chaos are the townspeople who’s Hippocratic verbal and physical actions influence the lives of Hester and her daughter, Pearl, in negative ways. Although the society, and many of the characters commit sins, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempts to convey the trail of thoughts that The Scarlet Letter is about Sinners; not sins.
Though, the book is filled with wrong doings from hypocrisy, lying, betrayal and even adultery, the author tends to be leaning more towards telling about the sinners and their perspectives about the occurring situations, rather than focusing on just the sins they have brought upon themselves. It is evident that Hester committed adultery, and has had to deal with the consequences of her actions throughout her life and has had effect on the life of her daughter, pearl. Demmesdale, the man whom she slept with while her husband was away, makes no efforts to help her in this a situation. We later learn in the story that he has committed adultery as well because Pearl is the daughter that came from the result of his affair with Hester. Doesn’t this make him a hypocrite?
Demmesdale was publicly accusing, humiliating, and torturing Hester for her sinful actions, when he had committed the same crime himself. He is just as guilty of hypocrisy as the townspeople are. Hester was publicly shamed and forced by the people of Boston to wear a badge of humiliation (the scarlet letter), and when she lavishly decorated the letter “A” which she had to wear on her bosom, they degraded her even more for supposably embracing her sins. Instead ...