The Scarlet Letter: Tales of Sin and Confession

The Scarlet Letter: Tales of Sin and Confession

By: Zack Phillips

"The happiness of the wicked passes away like a torrent!" This quote from Jean Baptiste Racin summarizes The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in one sentence. The novel's main focus is on three main characters and how the sins they commit affect their lives in the strict Puritan town of Boston around the year 1642. Hawthorne was very knowledgeable of his Puritan ancestry and shows it by incorporating some important thoughts and traditions into this story about sin and confession. Throughout the novel, the physical, social, mental and emotional changes that result from sin in the lives of the characters are never positive and the outcome of their spiritual battles are not always good; but the author makes it perfectly clear to us that concealing sin is not wise.

Hawthorne begins the first chapter of the novel with Hester's punishment. She had committed adultery, a crime that the Puritans often punished by death. She was sentenced to stand on the scaffold, a symbol of shame, for three hours in front of the whole town and to wear a scarlet letter "A" (meaning Adultery) for the rest of her life. She stayed loyal to her new partner and refused to expose his identity. Although she is not justified, Hester did not commit the greatest sin in the novel. Hers was a crime of passion and love, not premeditated or intended to hurt others. The sin in her actions was that her desire was of more importance to her than the Puritan moral code. This is proven when Hester says to Dimmesdale, "What we did had a consecration of its own. We felt it so! We said so to each other!" Hester fully acknowledged her guilt and displayed it with pride to the world. The elaborately decorated scarlet letter and the style in which she clothed her daughter, Pearl, was proof of this. Hester is, indeed, a sinner and her crime was very serious. The book is named after the punishment she received for committing this crime and it made life incredibly difficult for herself and her partner, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. In overcoming the hardships, she learned many important lessons that could be used to prevent future problems. "Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wilds ones, and they had made her strong..." Her comfort to the broken-hearted, charity to the poor, and unquestionable presence in times of hardship were direct results of her quest for repentance. Her salvation also lies in truth, this is evident when she says, "In all things else, I have striven to be true! Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast, and did hold fast through all extremity; save when thy good--thy life--thy fame--were put in question! Then I consented to a deception. But a lie is never good, even though death threaten on the other side!" (176) Although she is not very religious, Hester's virtues and learning abilities qualify her as the strongest character in the novel.

The whole town admires Arthur Dimmesdale, the respected preacher. He preaches against sin and urges his congregation to confess their evil deeds and wicked thoughts. "I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except tempt him -yea compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin?" Ironically, Hawthorne later reveals that Dimmesdale has been a hypocritical coward from the day of his affair with Hester. As far as the townspeople know, Hester is the lone sufferer for one sin committed by two people. No one would ever guess that their minister, alone, is guilty of three major crimes: adultery, hypocrisy, and neglecting confession. His heart becomes so heavy with guilt, remorse, and sorrow that he punishes himself by fasting for days, whipping his own back. Some believe that this is what caused the scarlet "A" to mysteriously appear on his chest. The guilt that is a direct result of concealing his terrible sins is literally destroying him. Hawthorne writes, "No man, for any considerable period can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true." (196) Dimmesdale is learning this lesson the hard way. His inner-conscience longs to confess, but he has too much worldly wealth at stake. He successfully keeps his secret from the town until he realizes it has already killed him.

Hawthorne had introduced Chillingworth as the victim, not the villain. After all, Hester and Dimmesdale both violated him by engaging in the act of adultery. This causes many readers to sympathize for Chillingworth until he plainly confesses that it was originally himself that sinned: "Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay."(66) Chillingworth knew that Hester didn't love him before they were married, but he was looking for what he wanted. He didn't mean to ruin Hester's life. His sin, like Hester's, was a crime of passion and desire. This alone does not qualify him as the worst sinner in the novel. When Chillingworth