Scarlett Letter Essay

Grayson Correro
Rockett 8th Period
The Scarlett Letter Essay
30, Oct. 2012
The Scarlett Letter Essay

Guilt? What is guilt? By textbook definition Guilt is the remorseful awareness of

having done something wrong. Simply put, "Guilt" is one of the hardest things us as

human beings have to deal with. Guilt is almost like being chained to a gargantuan boulder

, and expected to live a normal life. You want to cut the chain off, because this boulder is

weighing you down. However, you cannot bring yourself to cut it off. I promise you that

at some point in your livid life span you have experienced this gut-wrenching and mind

treacherous feeling we know as guilt. It is not the guilt or sin that makes

the person, it is the way we cope with our sins that defines the person we are. In the

Scarlett letter( a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne) the main characters are affected by their

guilt and sin someway.

Arthur Dimmesdale, a young minister in the novel, is effected by his guilt and sin

the hardest. When Reverend Dimmesdale commits adultery the guilt is almost unberable.

It takes gruesome physical toll on himself.   At the beginning of the novel Dimmesdale has

a healthy bright appearence. As the novel progesses Dimmesdale becomes pale and wea-

ker. He infact has to enlist the help of Chillingworth to take care of him to bring him up to

good spirits. His emotional pain lead him to inflict pain with a "bloody scourge", which he

had often "plied on his own shoulders"(Hawthorne 99). Dimmesdale began physically

whipping himself. Not only did he physically suffer he mentally crumbled. During his

night vigils "his brain often reeled and visions seemed to flit before him"(100)

Dimmesdale began hallucenating because the great mental burden due to his sin and guilt.

He begins to lose his temper easily when questioned.   No! -not to thee! - not to an earthly

physician"(94). However, Dimmesdale's sin differs... [continues]

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