The Scarlet Letter

The Aspects of Public Guilt V.S. Private Guilt

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne

One of the main aspects and purposes of The Scarlet Letter, was to illustrate the differences between the public humiliation of a person about their sin's, or the private suffering of a persons guilt and sin in their private acts. The fact that Hester had not just one of these,but both to deal with in her life. Besides the fact that she kept Dimmesdales secret from the rest of the colony of his sin, but on top of that she was made to wear a letter "A" upon all her clothing an was to never take it off. The us that Dimmesdale is dealing with the private guilt which some say is worse than the public guilt, but others would say the exact opposite of this.

Secondly the fact that Hawthorne shows and portrays the legal statutes of how the people of those days viewed sin and their own expectations of its punishment should and would be dealt with according to the Bible an the strict interpretations of it on Adultry. The Fact that Hawthorne puts Hester up on the Scaffold in the begginning of the book to stand in front of the townspeople shows us his views on how he believed that Hester should be punished. Where as the peoples laws from those days clearly stated that a person was to punishable to death for commiting adultry. This scene in the book is just another example of how public guilt was displayed. The other example used in this scene thats controversial with this, whereas it is shown as private guilt was that Dimmesdale would not appear on the Scaffold and stand with Hester or baby Pearle. Hester was punished publicly numerous times without relentment for seven years because of Pearle. Pearles continuous teasing of Heaster an her wearing of the Scarlet Letter were a great deal of her punishment.

Lastly, is the personal torture of guilt and emotional destruction of people involved in the affair really enough punishment for the sin, whether publicly or privatley punished.Hester was Publicly punished, once upon the scaffold in the beginning of the book, also in the fact that the she was also punished just from haveing Pearle around. And the third thing she was punnished for besides the Letter "A", but by keeping Chillingworths secret as well, privately that he was her husband. She also must privately keep her guilt a secret that he was her husband and that he meant to cause Dimmesdale pain and grief for his sins. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth both are found to suffer privately, Chillingworth because he knew that Dimmesdale was the father of Pearle and he also was Hesters husband as well. The suffering that Dimmesdale went through was an agony for him as he is said to hold his hand over his heart quite alot towards the end of the book. Whether this was because he was feeling the guilt of adultry or because of some self-inflicted punishment that he placed upon his self, that hurt him so privately that he couldnt bare to tell anybody until his last act told in the book. Some believe that he Branded hisself with a branding iron in the shape of the letter "A" or that Chillingworth had been giving him some kind of concoction that made a evilish black and sinful colored "A" upon his Heart.

These are just a few of the differences between the public humiliation of a person about their sin's, or the private suffering of a persons guilt and sin, portrayed in Nathaniel Hawthornes, The Scarlet Letter.