"The Truth of Sin"
            
             The novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story that explores the effects of sin and its consequences on the souls of its two main characters, Hester Prynne, (the protagonist), and Arthur Dimmesdale, (her secret lover). In this novel, these two characters were unable to restrain their adulterous tendencies, ultimately ending with the unfortunate consequence of Hester bearing the illegitimate offspring of the love affair, Pearl, as a result. Hester Prynne was the only character that suffered outwardly from this event, because she was ostracized by her Puritan society after their discovery of her adulterous affair. The other party involved, Dimmesdale, was able to uphold his duplicit facade until the end of the novel. Hester remains the social hero throughout the novel in that Hawthorne continues to suggest that a stronger individual can evolve from the tragedies of social hardships.
             Hester Prynne displayed and wore the lavish and gold embroidered, scarlet "A" upon her bosom with great pride. By wearing the scarlet "A" with pride Hester was conveying the notion that no feelings of guilt lingered around her psyche, instead she felt she was being treated in an unjustly fashion by the townspeople:
             " She hath good skill at her needle, that's certain, remarked one of her female
             spectators; but did ever a woman, before this brazen hussy, contrive such a way of
             showing it! Why, gossips, what is it but to laugh in the faces of our godly
             magistrates, and make a pride out of what they, worthy gentlemen, meant for a
             punishment?...as for the red letter, which she hath stitched so curiously, I'll
             Canson, 2
             bestow a rag of mine own rheumatic flannel, to make a fitter one!"
             (Hawthorne 51)
             Hawthorne is describing Hester's adventitious growth as an individual, after being forced to wear the scarlet letter. Hester has ma...