The Virtue In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

In modern times, there is a natural instinct to fabricate a lie to get out of even the most clement of punishments. For some people, it is just in their nature to tell tales shamelessly. However, there is so much stress that comes from keeping up with all the lies that there is a certain weight lifted when there is no need to anymore. It is freeing to no longer be a slave to falsities and to accept past mistakes. Even taking it a step further and atoning for them is better than living with the falsehood. There was a time in America where it was a holy duty to self-reproach for such acts. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale all commit sins against their Puritanical society’s
rules and vary in degree of which they come clean about it . Pearl, Hester’s daughter, represents these offences. Through Pearl’s symbolic nature, Hawthorne explores the acceptance of Hester’s, Dimmesdale’s, and Chillingworth’s sins. Hawthorne believes that those who embrace their transgressions and do not hide it from the world become better for it, such as Hester did. Those who choose to remain in secret of their wrongdoings, ultimately, suffer for who are ignorant to their own iniquity and hide their true self from the world never find happiness, as the case with Chillingworth.