choice, Shakespeare is not denying Christian beliefs but emphasizing the same truth conveyed by many other authors: the truth about the destructive nature of sin. Hawthorne’s Arthur Dimmesdale dies as a result of his sin and subsequent guilt in The Scarlet Letter, and Miller’s John Proctor dies as a result of his weakness and the false accusations of others in The Crucible. These authors show the real and lasting powerful effects of our transgressions as a warning to think about the consequences of our