he_Scarlet_Letter

he Scarlet Letter Since early times, Puritans have had the reputation for strong discipline, their religious beliefs, and harsh punishment for those defying their beliefs. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel that portrays the Puritans as cold and unfeeling. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne goes to detail on how revenge can be a powerful force. In “The Scarlet Letter” Nathaniel Hawthorne presents three main characters that commit evil and sinful acts, where each act is at a different degree of sinfulness. These three sinners (in the eyes of the Puritan community) are: the beautiful Hester Prynne, the esteemed Reverend Dimmesdale, and the cold-hearted doctor Roger Chillingworth. Hawthorn believes that evil is the nature of man but that there are different magnitudes of evil- some choose to fight it, like Hester, and some choose to give in, like Chillingworth. Hester Prynn, a strong willed and brave women, in respect to the two additional people, has committed the least amount of sin in the novel. However, in the eyes of the Puritan community, she has committed one of the worst possible sins that can be imagined: adultery. Though, in their eyes, she is horrendously corrupt, it is not chillingworth, hester, dimmesdale, sin, evil, puritan, man, god, eyes, committed, through, strong, sinful, scarlet, roger, puritans, novel, letter, however, hawthorne, goes, first, fact, death, community, against, admit, wrong, without, weakness, victim, two, three, sins, seven