Essay Analysis Of Nathaniel Hawthorne 's ' The Scarlet Letter '

Demise is Easier Than Salvation Achieving salvation is not as easy as A, B, C or 1, 2, 3, as it requires a lot of tenacity, courage, and a genuine desire for redemption. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s explores the two different outcomes of sin—salvation and demise. Roger Chillingworth struggles with a revenge that consumes him, Arthur Dimmesdale deals with an overpowering amount of guilt, and Hester struggles daily with isolation and solitude, all of these a results of sin. Each of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s characters face the consequences of sins that could steer them towards their ultimate demise; however, the Scarlet Letter shows that even the most abhorrent sinners can receive salvation if they wish to receive it. Revenge gave purpose to Roger Chillingworth’s life, it consumed his every thought and action throughout the entirety of the novel; unfortunately, his vindictiveness tarnished his character, and irrevocably led to his demise. His vow of revenge caused his heart to harden and his character to become comparable to that of the devil, which Hester recognized stating, “In a word, old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man’s faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a devil’s office. This unhappy person had effected such a transformation by devoting himself, for seven years, to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures…