Sin is often followed by punishment, whether it be humiliation or even death. Punishment in the form of humiliation or death is one of the many themes Nathaniel Hawthorne deals with in his novel The Scarlet Letter. Through the characters of Pearl and her mother Hester Prynne, and Hester's ill-fated lover Dimmesdale, the reader discovers the consequences of sin in the punishments that follow. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester's sin is punishable by public humiliation, personable troubles, and even the death of those associated with her sin.
             As is the tradition in Puritan society, Hester is put on public display in front of all the town of Boston to confess her sin of adultery. She is also forced to wear "on the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with and elaborate embroidery and flourishes of gold thread...the letter 'A';" a literal symbol for the community to know she is denounced as a sinner, an adulterer. The letter 'A' completely humiliates her in front of everyone she meets. She begins to even hide behind it, trying to conceal her identity. Hawthorne describes Hester as " the unhappy culprit sustained...as best a woman might, under the heavy weigh of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her and concentrated on her bosom." The scarlet letter Hester wears will constantly remind her and the townspeople that she is a sinner; reassuring the fact that she will never regain the respect she had before this incident. This is Hester's first punishment to be seen by the reader.
             Hester's daughter Pearl is a much more considerable punishment than the letter 'A.' All of the evil and hate of this dramatic story is embodied in this little girl, being that Pearl is the living symbol of Hester's sin. Pearl is a beautifully charismatic child and thus a blessing, but the stress of Hester's environment seems to tw
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