Dealing With Guilt In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Sin is an interesting concept that means different things to different people. Therefore, different people handle sin in different ways. Most people associate a sense of guilt with sin and because the concept is so complex people interpret and deal with guilt in different ways also. The two main ways sin and guilt are dealt with is privately and publicly. Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter exemplifies two peoples dealings with the same sin. Hester Prynne is publicly shamed for adultery, while Arthur Dimmesdale privately torments himself. Hester is able to deal with her sin better than Dimmesdale, because she had confessed her sin, she is honest with herself and others, and she has her child, Pearl. Hester had confessed her sin for all the people of her town to see. Not only did she serve a prison sentence, she has a few very public punishments as well. She was forced to stand upon the scaffold for three hours while holding her infant daughter and she is required to wear a scarlet letter A upon her chest. One would think that those punishments were horrendous and cruel, but all in all, they helped Hester deal with the guilt of her sin. She didn't have the burden of an unconfessed sin on her soul. She was able to navigate
She never lied or felt ashamed about her scarlet letter, because she saw it as a part of her being. Her sin changed everything in her life, but it became her life nonetheless and she was strong enough to accept that. She never had to worry about the secret of her sin coming out or deal with silent guilt. She was able to do good deeds while also being honest about her past. Dimmesdale suffered greatly because he couldn't be honest with others. Part of why he tormented himself to the extent that he did was because he felt like he was lying to his congregation about who he was. He felt as if he was posing as holy man that would go to heaven, even though he believed he would burn in