People live with lies every day. Everyone from the President of the
             United States to the poorest beggar in New York City has told a lie. White
             lies, gray lies, and plain old dirty fat lies are strewn forth every day like
             water from 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, 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. While
             Hester Pryne admits her sins and resolves them over time through her
             charity work, Arthur Dimmsdale bottles up his sins and, even though he
             physically tortures himself, cannot resolve his great misdeeds..
             The first character to choose a path is Hester Pryne. While she did
             have a child when she hadn't seen her husband in over a year, (a dead
             giveaway) she could have easily fled the colony before the birth. She
             instead stayed and faced her peers, and in that way she admitted her sin. To
             flee would have led her along a completely different path, one of denial.
             Hester didn't quite buy into all the Puritan ideals, but ...