The Scarlet Letter - The Letter of a Thousand Words :: Scarlet Letter essays

The Scarlet Letter - The Letter of a Thousand Words    The Scarlet Letter deals with the theme of sin. Throughout history, people have committed all types of sins, and whether they are major or minor, people have been punished. However the severity of a punishment is very difficult to agree on. Some people feel that sinners should be deeply punished no matter how little the wrongdoing was. Others feel that a person's punishment should be based upon the severity of their crime. What many people overlook is the fact that in time, we all have committed sins. That is the case with the three main characters from the Scarlet Letter. Even though they were all different on the outside, inside they all shared a certain feeling of sin and guilt. So when I think of Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, I think heavily upon the feelings that they all shared together, which were sin and guilt.    This novel was brought about from one mistake that a young, beautiful woman made. Here she was sent over to Boston without her husband, and many years later still hasn't shown up. She doesn't know if he is alive or died at sea. In the meantime, she got acquainted with Reverend Dimmesdale. Between the two of them, Hester bears a child and that child is the living proof, and a constant reminder that Hester has committed a sin. So the townspeople made Hester wear the letter A on her chest and made her stand on a scaffold in front of the town to display her shame. So everywhere she went she had to carry that guilt with her. In the meantime Chillingworth shows up and demands to know whom the father of Pearl is. Hester will not tell him so he constantly batters her but Hester keeps her strength and refuses each time. Which isn't so easy because she has to face him everyday.    Dimmesdale is most likely the worst sinner of all. His sin was that he was Hester's partner, which was Pearls father. Since he was a coward, he didn't have the guts to admit it to the public. He didn't want to lose the public's trust and his popularity that he had from his congregation.