How Does Hester Commit Adultery In The Novel

During the seventeenth century adultery was considered an immense sin in Boston and those who committed adultery were to be punished. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne we are introduced to a young woman who has committed adultery and now has to wear a scarlet letter upon her bosom, throughout the novel we get to see the development of her and the people she is closest to change. In the novel there are four main characters Hester Prynne, Pearl, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. We see the characteristics of these four unfold, as Hester becomes resilient even after all the ignominy she has gone through , Pearl turns out satisfactorily in the end even though many believed she was a child of a demon, Dimmesdale …show more content…
Hester sinned by committing adultery, she is punished by having to stand on the platform in front of the whole community for all to see while baring her own baby in her arms for what seemed hours. "Young and pure would be taught to look at her...who had once been innocent...as the figure...of sin" she was set as an example for others to not commit adultery or you would end up like Hester with a scarlet letter "A" that made others be cruel to you. When Hester was finally let out of prison she began a life with her baby, she was given the option to move but Hester decided to stay in New England. Hester and her daughter grew a very close bond although sometimes Her daughter, Pearl made her life a living hell but she still loved her nevertheless. When the minister tried to separate them Hester said "God gave me a child...she is my happiness!-she is my torture,none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life" because Pearl was her only companion without her there would have been no meaning to her life. As the story progresses Hester seems okay with her life until finally "she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance " after doing this Hester feels free …show more content…
Dimmesdale 's job was to get Hester to confess the identity of the child" ' Good Master Dimmesdale 's said he 'the responsibility of this woman 's soul lies greatly with you. It behooves you...to exhort her....to confession ' " little did they know that Dimmesdale was the actual father. Dimmesdale tells Hester to confess on who the father is but Hester does not confess leaving him to feel a sinner for 7 long years. As the story continues Dimmesdale health becomes very bad " he was often observed...to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush then a paleness indicative of pain." He starts to feel this pain because of the remorse he is feeling, so he decided to get a doctor knowing little that the doctor he is getting is Hester 's husband, Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth makes Dimmesdale 's every single life moment feel as "Suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul, and given over to the machinations of his deadliest enemy". Dimmesdale soon finds out that Chillingworth is Hester 's husband when she speaks to him in the woods after seeing him suffer so much by her husband during that moment they also plan on leaving to Europe to lives as a happy family. As Dimmesdale is about to give his last speech before leaving you can see he is becoming weaker and weaker " it seemed hardly