Sins Ability to Control a Person in The Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers

Sins Ability to Control a PersonSin is a major theme in The blood-red Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In The Scarlet Letter, lousiness is practiced through come to the fore a few of the characters. The only dispute amongst them is the way that they try to atone for it or be completely enveloped by it. Sin can take control of a person and cut down them completely to the point of no return.Hester at first felt that her sin had taken away everything that she had and left her with only one thing, Pearl. When she first walked out of the prison and onto the scaffold, she was full of pride but from that point on, she was isolated from her alliance and forced to live in the forest with only her baby. Hester felt that self-destruction was the only thing she deserved after committing adultery. She says, I have belief of death, have wished for it?would even have prayed for it, were it fit that such as I should pray for anything. Yet, if death be in this cup, I bid thee find again, ere th ou beholdest me quaff it. See it is even now at my lips. As time passes by, Hester?s personality gradually changes and she becomes a completely opposite person. She has become to a greater extent caring although her lifestyle became worse.As for high-minded Dimmesdale, he is completely enveloped by his guilt from the sin that he has committed and is unable to come forward to aver it. Instead, he tortures himself each and every day. Hawthorne writes, ?His Dimmesdale?s inward trouble drove him to practices more in accordance with the old, corrupted cartel of Rome than with the better light of the church ? In Mr. Dimmesdales secret closet, below lock and key, there was a bloody scourge.? Later, he says that he tries to confess by saying that he has sinned but the Puritan community misinterprets it as a sign of him being a saint and that if he has sinned then what are they. Chillingworth is also a sinner because he pretends to be a physician when he really isn?t and takes that r ole to torture Reverend Dimmesdale. Chillingworth tortures Dimmesdale slowly by hurting him both physically and mentally. During this time he pretends to take care of him in which he really isn?t. Hawthorne writes, ?Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appeared, there was ? a quiet depth of malice ? but dynamic now, in this unfortunate old man ? imagine a more intimate revenge ? upon an enemy.