Revealing the Truth, Sins and Society in The Scarlet Letter
"Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!" (page 260) White lies, grey lies, and plain old dirty fat lies are sprinkled out every day like a fountain. The only true difference between them is the amount of guilt they place on the liar. If they feel guilt, then they suffer greatly throughout their lives, from lots of small indiscretions or just once large one. The majority of the people in this world have the ability to alleviate their guilt through some kind of penance, but for some that is not enough. Anything they do can not repeal the feeling of guilt and the knowledge they did something wrong. People like this make themselves sick with worry and regret, and they often die of their disease: depression. Those people who do manage to drop their guilt become productive members of society again because they have reconnected with the rest of the human race. They don't deny their guilt or their crimes, they just acknowledge there are some things they cannot change and they can just try to make up for them.In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne the decision of the characters to either admit or hide the truth determines the quality of their lives
Dimesdale's sin of adultery is worst because he is a symbol of god. had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint like, because of the result of martyrdom. Even the Puritan people who openly despised her at the time she exposed her sin, eventually were won over by her vast charity work. The guilt that Dimmesdale keeps concealed within his soul eventually beats him and he dies. Therefore, Dimmesdale refuses to be opened with his sin. And, like Chillingsworth said at the end of the book, a confession would have ended Chillingsworth's evil prematurely: "there was no one place so secret, - no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me . Hester proves that by repenting and repelling sin, it is truly capable of making one stronger. Honestly, Hester's "badge of shame" (page 111), makes her a stronger person. Hawthorne forms his view of sin clearly in The Scarlet Letter. The only difference is the same one at the roots of all Dimmsdale's problems: these drug users were all admitted junkies. She is aware that her sin is iniquitous, but by being open about it she is able to become a stronger person. The guilty in this world will always have a choice, no matter how difficult it is. He led wondrously moving sermons on honesty and the fate of those who did not come clean with God. Hester Prynne therefore did not flee.
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