The Scarlet Letter Essay, Research Paper

Chillingworth?s remarks show the importance of Dimmesdale?s confession: ?Hadst thou

sought the world earth over, there was no place so secret,–no high

place not lowly place where thou couldst have escaped me,–save on this

very scaffold!? I think Dimmesdale has not created the worst sin of the

book, even though he inflicted much pain onto himself over guilt and

remorse. Hawthorne wanted to see what would happen if he created a

character that struggled to hide a terrible sin deep in his heart, but also

believed in a God that sees and loves the truth. This is what Arthur

Dimmesdale thought and felt. His confession helped save his soul. Among

many morals, which press upon us from the poor minister?s miserable

experience, we put only this into a sentence: ?Be true! Be true! Be true!

Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the

worst may be inferred!? Roger Chillingworth is the worst sinner of the

book, in my opinion. At first glance, Chillingworth seems to be sinned

against, not a sinner. His first sin is one against nature and Hester

more specifically. It was committed the day he married Hester. He knew she

did not love him, and he was not fit to make her a proper husband. He

did not wrong her on purpose. Chillingworth does look back and

sympathize. It seemed not so wild a dream, –old as I was, and somber as I was,

and misshapen as I was, –that the simple bliss, which is scattered far

and wide, for all mankind to gather up, might yet be mine. And so,

Hester, I drew thee into my heart, into its innermost chamber, and sought

to warm thee by the warmth which they presence made there!

Chillingworth?s ignorance does not even excuse him. He sinned and knows it: ?Mine

was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and

unnatural relation with my decay.? Hester knows he sinned also. She knew

she was very young when she married him. His admittance to persuading

her to be with him comes as no surprise to Hester. Chillingworth is a

classic case of that sin Hawthorne developed called the ?unpardonable

sin.? For seven years, Chillingworth?s purpose is to search out and

torment the man who has betrayed him. He has become a leech and sucks the

life out of Dimmesdale. Vengeance is what he is obsessed with. In the

process of carrying out his own vengeance, he destroys himself. He attempts

to play God, and instead turns into a devil. A large number…affirmed

that Roger Chillingworth?s aspect had undergone a remarkable change

while he had dwelt in town, ad especially since his abode with Mr.

Dimmesdale. At first his expression had been calm, meditative, scholar-like.

Now, there was something ugly and evil in his face, which they had not

previously noticed, and which grew still the more obvious to sight the

oftener they looked upon him. Hester begins to feel that Chillingworth?s

transformation is her fault. He must assume the responsibility for

having destroyed himself. It is he who surrendered his human sympathies in

his quest for revenge. Chillingworth?s worst sin is violating the

sanctity of the human heart. He suffers the most, dying shortly after

Dimmesdale?s death. His vengeance was all that was driving him forward. It

was his sole purpose for living. All his strength and energy–all his

vital and intellectual force–seemed at once to desert him insomuch that

he positively withered up, shriveled away, and almost vanished from

mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun. This

unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to consist of the

pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge and when, by its completest

triumph and consummation, that evil principle was left no further material

to support it, when, in short, there was no more Devil?s work on earth

for him to do so… The townspeople made Hester?s situation even worse.

They punished her for committing a sin, even though they committed sins

themselves. The townspeople were then guilty of hypocrisy. The worst

sin committed by the townspeople is the isolation they put Hester

through. She was at a point where she would not go out in the daytime, just to

avoid the people. Wearing her sin on her chest made the townspeople

isolate her. They were all clear hypocrites for being the same people who

went to church weekly, repenting their own sins. Nathaniel Hawthorne

was immersed in sin, its wages, and the redemption of sin. Hawthorne was

a Puritan descendant, a child to a strong tradition of sin. Puritan

theology was based upon the conviction of sins. The Scarlet Letter is a

study of the effects of sin on the hearts and mind of each of Hawthorne?s

characters. Hester and Dimmesdale seek redemption. Chillingworth, the

worst sinner of the story, never seeks redemption. Hawthorne has written

one of the first symbolic novels in American history. One of the most

obvious symbols of sin in the story was Pearl. Pearl is the embodiment

of her parent?s sin. She is the incarnate of the letter ?A? on Hester?s

chest. Pearl also is Hester?s constant reminder that she has committed

a great sin. Pearl almost seemed inhuman until the end of the novel.

Lastly, I feel Hawthorne?s The Scarlet Letter is an almost history novel

of the Puritan society, and its conviction of sin, in his view and

research.