Hester Prynne's Sin In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

1270 Words6 Pages
There is always punishment and repentance after committing a crime and it brings agony to the person who commits the crime. The Scarlet letter is a novel about a woman who commits adultery with one of the most virtuous people of Boston. During her husband’s absence, Hester Prynne falls in love with Arthur Dimmesdale, her pastor, and commits adultery which results in a beautiful girl named Pearl. Adultery is a serious crime among puritans and as soon as Hester shows signs of pregnancy, religious leaders of Boston find out about her sin. They believe that Hester has a lost soul and repentance is the only way to save it. For this irrevocably unforgivable sin, she must wear a symbol of shame, the letter “A”, for the rest of her life. Hester Prynne losses…show more content…
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Dimmesdale, suffers more than Hester Prynne by not confessing his crime which leads him to retain it inside his heart for seven years. Hester Prynne's sin of adultery has a big impact on her spirit as well as Pearl’s. Everyone looks at her as an evil and dishonest person and more importantly, her sin has isolated her from the society. Hester donates most of her income to the poor “who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them. Much of the time, which she might readily have applied to the better efforts of her art, she employed in making coarse garments for the poor” (Hawthorne 125). She spends most of her time and money for the poor, and yet the poor insult the very hands that give them food and dress. The letter “A” isolates her from everyone else because it symbolizes her unforgivable crime. Hester lives in an isolated world, a world which is completely solitary from people. One another major suffering for Hester is the presence of her
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