Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale
            
             In the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are two estranged lovers. They have a daughter named Pearl, who was the product of Hester's and Arthur's adultery. When Hester became pregnant, she had absolutely no idea where her repugnant, disfigured husband, old Roger Chillingworth was. After two years, was thought to have been at the bottom of the sea. The father of the baby was young Mr. Dimmesdale a minister of the Puritan church. Luckily, Hester Prynne was released from prison and was only sentenced to wear a lurid scarlet letter "A" upon her bosom, instead of execution, as the law stated. The Puritan religion of the town, in which Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne lived, kept them from joining together as a couple.
             The Puritan society caused their estrangement. They were unable to communicate or spend quality time together in the present and in the public eye, because of Arthur's high position as a minister. He was
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             expected by the people of Boston to perpetrate good examples as an exemplary citizen. If his iniquity had been known, the town would exile and excommunicate him. Hester did not want to cause Arthur any abasement. And so, she once stood on the scaffold in despondence with her three-month old baby girl wrapped in her arms, and refused to name her lover, Mr. Dimmesdale. The strict Puritan church makes it difficult for Reverend Dimmesdale to be human and honest by telling his sin. The other ministers of the church demand standards and perfection that he feels he must follow. He did not want to be scorned by his fellow ministers. Also, his pride or ego kept him from being honest. Hester tells Reverend Wilson:
            
             "...It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!" "I will not speak!"
             "...And my child must seek a heavenl...