Untitled Essay, Research Paper

Scarlet Letter- Results of Sin

By: Alan Eugene Sims, Jr.

There are many ways to interpret literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered

a very influential writer of the American Transcendentalist era; his writing

deals a lot with the Puritan times, including his famous novel, The Scarlet

Letter. The Scarlet Letter deals with the adulterous sin of Hester Prynne

and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the vengeance of Roger Chillingsworth, and

the townspeople’s attitude towards Hester and her daughter Pearl. Sin can

be categorized many ways, but most importantly, one should remember that

bad things always develop from sin. The fact that Hester and the minister

sinned led to the townspeople looking down on Hester and Pearl, while Reverend

Dimmesdale concealed his crime of passion making Hester’s scarlet letter

‘A’ the central symbol of the novel.

As the people of Boston scrutinized Hester and Pearl, their devotion to the

Lord’s word soon turned to hatred. “At the very least, they should have put

the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead,” were the thrashful

words of an autumnal matron in a throng of people. Under the appellation

of Roger Chillingsworth, Hester’s former husband constantly battered her.

These actions filled him full of vengeance soon making him into a fiend.

From the people treating Hester bad, and the unruly acts of Roger Chillingsworth,

it is clearly shown that one sin can lead to many others.

Another example of sin erupting into more evils is Reverend Dimmesdale’s

camouflage act with his duality in the adulterous parody. Chillingsworth

treated the minister even more uncivilized than he treated Hester; this earned

him the title of the leech. As a physician, he was well respected, but his

fiendish acts of hatred towards the minister turned him into a black devil.

Seven years after Hester served her persecution on the scaffold with young

Pearl, Reverend Dimmesdale served his punishment. Not only did the sin of

Reverend Dimmesdale make him lose all consciousness, when he confessed his

crime, he lost his life to the cause. Through trying to avoid his sin, the

reverend made

more devils take hold of his life.

The scarlet letter ‘A’ is the central symbol of the novel. It served as a

sign of adultery, angel, able, and other things. Even though it served these

many titles, it does not make up for the way that Hester and Reverend

Dimmesdale’s sin erupted into many others. Many things can be learned from

the novel the Scarlet Letter even though it was written during the 19th century

and about the Puritan times. It is a good interpretation of literature.