Sin easily leads someone astray from what is morally right. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, The Scarlet Letter, the adulteress Hester Prynne lives life in sin. When her sin has time to fester, Hester is often left with feelings of loneliness and resentment from everyone around her. After years of rejection and judgement from the townspeople, she loses sight of morality and strays into a moral wilderness which is a strength and a weakness. Caring for others but not oneself can lead one into moral wilderness. Hester strays from what is morally right when she wishes death upon herself while in jail for committing adultery. She and her daughter, Pearl, receive medicine but Hester is skeptical and does not let her child take the it for fear poison.
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Hester wanders from her morals when she believes that no other person is as bad as her. Hester is now out of jail but feels out of place and starts to believe what the town says about her. Hawthorne explains that, “Such loss of faith is ever one of the saddest results of sin. Be it accepted as a proof that all was not corrupt in this poor victim of her own fraility, and man’s hard law, that Hester Prynne yet struggled to believe that no fellow-mortal was guilty like herself” (73). Sadly, Hester’s loss of faith is what leads her into moral wilderness. Her morals are now altered because she has a hard time believing that no one else sins like herself. This false truth leads to loneliness for Hester. She believes what man portrays to her. She thinks that her adultery is unforgivable. As a result, day and night she is looked at differently by everyone she encounters. With the same reaction happening time after time, “it seared Hester’s bosom so deeply, that perhaps there was more truth in the rumor than out modern incredulity may be inclined to admit” (73). The scarlet letter is now a part of her. The loneliness, judgement, and rejection is her everyday life. It is unavoidable to go anywhere at anytime of day without people judging and rejecting her wherever she goes. This leads her into a wilderness because she feels
Hester wanders from her morals when she believes that no other person is as bad as her. Hester is now out of jail but feels out of place and starts to believe what the town says about her. Hawthorne explains that, “Such loss of faith is ever one of the saddest results of sin. Be it accepted as a proof that all was not corrupt in this poor victim of her own fraility, and man’s hard law, that Hester Prynne yet struggled to believe that no fellow-mortal was guilty like herself” (73). Sadly, Hester’s loss of faith is what leads her into moral wilderness. Her morals are now altered because she has a hard time believing that no one else sins like herself. This false truth leads to loneliness for Hester. She believes what man portrays to her. She thinks that her adultery is unforgivable. As a result, day and night she is looked at differently by everyone she encounters. With the same reaction happening time after time, “it seared Hester’s bosom so deeply, that perhaps there was more truth in the rumor than out modern incredulity may be inclined to admit” (73). The scarlet letter is now a part of her. The loneliness, judgement, and rejection is her everyday life. It is unavoidable to go anywhere at anytime of day without people judging and rejecting her wherever she goes. This leads her into a wilderness because she feels