The Scarlet Sin Essay, Research Paper
For thousands of years people have been transgressing their moral and
religious laws to benefit themselves or their beliefs. As recorded
early in the Bible, God’s creation had not even cooled from the proverbial
oven before it started to disobey the rules, “And the Lord God
commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat’ . .
. when the woman saw the tree was good for food . . . she took from
it’s fruit and ate . . . and she gave also to her husband with her, and he
ate” (Genesis 2-3). More notable sinners of the past include Nero of
Rome, whose interesting behaviors and whims caused many a death, Mao
Tse-tung, who appears in the Guinness Book of World Records for killing 100
million Chinese, and Charles Manson, whose bloody and bizarre killings
instantly grabbed national attention. Misdemeanors, although not as
immense, are the setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter; the
theme of which seems to reflect the consequences of these sins.
The obvious result of Hester Prynne’s adulterous relationship with
Arthur Dimmesdale was the child it produced. The Puritan society Hester
lived in dealt harshly with such wanton and immoral actions. Hester was
imprisoned for a short time in the city jail, “With the same harsh
demeanor, she was led back to prison, and vanished from the public gaze
within its iron-clamped portal” (Hawthorne 67). The “beetle-browed and
gloomy [jail]” (Hawthorne 46) was the first sight that greeted the
illegitimate child. Hester was forced to stand on the town scaffold and listen
to Reverend Wilson deliver a blistering sermon on the sin of adultery.
The clergymen also condemned the adulteress to wear a scarlet letter
“A” on her clothing at all times. It was gossiped, “by those who peered
after her, that the scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the dark
passageway of the interior” (Hawthorne 67) and was a constant reminder of
misdeeds committed by the wearer.
The consequences of Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth’s sins
were not as apparent to the casual observer. The minister’s guilty
conscience drove him to a manic-depressive state of mind and many rash
incidents, “And thus, while standing on the scaffold Mr. Dimmesdale was
overcome with a great horror of mind . . . Without any effort of his will
or power to restrain himself, he shrieked aloud; an outcry that went
pealing through the night” (Hawthorne 144). Dimmesdale progressively
became worse, for he still had not confessed to being Hester’s accomplice.
Thus by deceiving himself and the townspeople, he was also guilty of the
sin of hypocrisy. Worsening this fact was the near god-like status he
was held to by his congregation so enraptured were they by his moving
sermons and religious fervor. The reverend eventually died, confessing
his sins, in the arms of his beloved and their child. The general
consensus, between Hester and Dimmesdale, was that Chillingworth’s, “revenge
has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the
sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!” (Hawthorne
191). For seven long years Chillingworth was Dimmesdale’s leech, exacting
his revenge upon the minister in subtle forms under the pretense of
“physician”. Soon after the demise of the reverend Chillingworth himself,
“positively withered up, shriveled away, and vanished from mortal sight”
(Hawthorne 254). He essentially rotted to death from the hateful
thoughts of revenge that so consumed him.
The greatest sin brought forth in this novel is not committed by any
of the three main characters mentioned. It was committed by the
community of Boston. Hester’s normal, daily activities were closely scrutinized
by the town and her countenance was scorned by the “Christian”
population. Hester was reprimanded for the way she walked, she was shunned by
the people of the town and her visits to church were greeted by harsh
sermons on adultery, ” If she entered a church, trusting to share the
Sabbath smile of the Universal Father, it was often her mishap to find
herself the test of the discourse” (Hawthorne 82). Hester received little
more than beans for the fine quality sewing she did for the governor
and other high class citizens. There was a tremendous difference in the
town?s behavior towards Hester and the way they treated Dimmesdale and
Chillingworth. Dimmesdale was revered and held in awe and Chillingworth
received the utmost respect as a physician while they both were living
the false lives of hypocrites.
The sin of adultery is the set of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and
the theme of the work addresses the consequences of these actions. The
brilliant creation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s mind, Arthur Dimmesdale,
seems to give the advice that, if acted upon, would reveal the true nature
of many, “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not
your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”
(Hawthorne 254).