InThe Scarlet Letter, as
well as in a number of his works, Nathaniel Hawthorne concerns his narratives with the
devasting effects of a religion that refused to allow its followers to be forgiven for
sin. While Hester is scorned, publicly humilitated, and ostracized after her conviction
for adultery, her good works do, nevertheless, earn her some forgiveness by the
community as the scarlet A later comes to mean "Angel" and "Able"; eventually, the
townspeople consult Hester for advice and comfort. Thus, she is freed of the burden of
her sin as she can live an authentic existence, not one in which she must hide her
conscience from others.
It is the characters who conceal
their "secret sin" that are tortured by this sin with little hope of redemption. In his
desire for revenge, Chillingworth deteriorates physically, but he accepts his evil
nature. In an interview with Hester, he admits to her in Chapter XVII that he has
become a devil, but he tells her he is committed to his path and it is Dimmesdale who
has transformed him into this fiend.
Likewise, Dimmesdale
becomes distorted in his inability to admit his "secret sin." The concealed sin
"rankles" in his heart and torments his mind and spirit. His hypocrisy as a minister
adds to this torment of his conscience as he fervently urges his congregation to openly
repent. This admonition serves as a mouthpiece for Hawthorne's
theme:
Among
many morals which press upon us from the poor minister's miserable experience, we put
only this into a sentence: "Be true! Be True! Be true! Show freely to the world, if
not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst can be
inferred.!"
Unwillingly,
Hester,who must show freely her sin to the world, attains as a consequence, an authentic
existence free of hypocrisy. But, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, who hide their "secret
sins," are destroyed by their hypocrisy--Chillingworth by the evil he embraces and
Dimmesdale by the guilt he harbors in his soul.
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