The True Sinners
The main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, and the Puritan society represented by the townspeople, all sinned. The story is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Sin strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into the villain. Hester Prynne’s sin was adultery. This sin was regarded very seriously by the Puritans, and was often punished by death. Hester’s punishment was to endure a public shaming on a scaffold for three hours and wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest for the rest of her life in the town. Although Hawthorne does not pardon Hester’s sin, he interprets it in a ...
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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. This was obvious by the way she displayed the scarlet letter. It was elaborately designed as if to show Hester was proud of what she had done. Hester is indeed a sinner; adultery is not a minor affair, even today. On the other hand, her sin has brought her not evil, but good. Her charity to the poor, her comfort to the broken-hearted, her unquestionable presence in times of trouble are all direct results of her quest for repentance. Her salvation also lies in the truth. She tells Dimmesdale of Chillingworth’s real identity, keeping it a secret before, to aid in her salvation. Her pursuit in telling the truth is evident in the lines, “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--the life--they fame--were put in question! Then I consented a ...
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the same as Hester’s. He is Hester’s silent partner in crime. The guilty one who has confessed nothing in order to save himself. Actually, Dimmesdale is a coward, a man who is too weak to confess his guilt, even though he desires to greatly. As a way of self-punishment, Dimmesdale has created a supposed “A” on his own chest by beating himself. Dimmesdale has committed the crime of hypocrisy. He is a minister and every week gets up on his pulpit to hear his congregation’s sins. Somehow, Dimmesdale is too weak to confess his own sin. By hiding it, his sin becomes even worse; it’s now a concealed sin. Dimmesdale pleads with Hester, while she is sentenced on the scaffold, to confess his guilt. ...
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The True Sinners. (2008, December 25). Retrieved April 28, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-True-Sinners/95190
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"The True Sinners." Essayworld.com. December 25, 2008. Accessed April 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-True-Sinners/95190.
"The True Sinners." Essayworld.com. December 25, 2008. Accessed April 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-True-Sinners/95190.
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