Neither the sins of Hester, Chillingworth or Dimmesdale are greater, but rather each sin proves to have greater consequences. Early confession of sins prevents more sin in a life. Sin continues to grow in the heart until the truth is revealed. A sin, not confessed, will tug at the sinner's conscience. Eventually the hidden sin or sins will work its way out from being under cover. Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale are sinful, but Chillingworth and Dimmesdale live out their sins for a longer period of time then Hester.
             The focused sin that Hester Prynne commits and confesses, in the Scarlet Letter is adultery. "...Insomuch that you should no longer hide the name of him who tempted you to this grievous fall (Hawthorne 61)." Mr. Wilson is talking to Hester about revealing who her adulteress is. "...The mother of this child stood fully revealed before the crowed...(50)." Hester confesses her sin, which results with her standing on a scaffold in front of the town's people. Hester deals with her sins by confessing them and facing her consequences of standing on the scaffold and wearing the Scarlet Letter.
             Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale's sins mainly focus on: adultery, a failure to confess his sin, and hypocrisy that leads to death. "Such a friend as thou hast even now wished for, with whom to weep over thy sin, thou hast in me, the partner of it (176)!" Dimmesdale and Hester meet in the woods were they talk about the sin they committed with each other. "Hester, I am most miserable (175)." Dimmesdale begins to tell Hester how miserable he is from not confessing his sin to the town. "As concerns the good which I may appear to do, I have no faith in it. It must needs be a delusion. What can a ruined soul, like mine, effect towards the redemption of other souls? -Or a polluted soul towards their purification (175)." Dimmesdale calls himself a hypocrite for pr
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