Vengeance In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most successful and best known novel, The Scarlet Letter, is driven by the theme of vengeance. That is to say that, the acts of retaliation played out by Hawthorne’s characters in response to the intense pain inflicted upon them by the consequences of sin moves the story chapter by chapter from Hester Prynne’s imprisonment a lifetime later. By the story’s conclusion, the characters are exposed for who they really are, which in some cases is the very opposite from what the reader first assumed. Vengeance causes The Scarlet Letter’s characters to become completely irrational and leads them to do heinous things in an attempt to punish and destroy the ones that they blame for their suffering the most. Many studies show that vengeance is the number one cause of violence that science can identify. About twenty percent of murders are rooted in the need for revenge against another human. Malicious groups such as terrorist organizations recruit vengeance-driven people to perform suicide missions that end in the death of innocents. Each character is directly affected by the vengeance of a few. This shows how one’s actions do not just affect one’s self, but
He curses God because he blames God for putting him through seven years of torrential torment leading to his death. He shows that he now believes that he has been rejected by God and that God’s benevolence and love has been taken from him. He feels that a loving God would never have turned a sin by two individuals into a curse of four. Dimmesdale’s vengeance does not stop with God. He internally seeks revenge on Chillingworth, for the obvious reason of his forced agony, and has also shown that he does not trust his hypocritical congregation.
A discussion of vengeance in The Scarlet Letter can hardly be held without the mention of Hester Prynne’s lack of vengeance. She shows no ill will toward anyone who has