Theme Of Emotions In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter

The Psychology of Emotions in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlett Letter is set during the seventeenth century in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The story deals with a lone mother, Hester Prynne, trying to deal with the onslaught of criticism coming from the town about her sin of adultery. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter, the psychology of emotions within the characters alters their actions. The anger within the townspeople of Boston against European royalty is taken out on Hester and her child. During the seventeenth century, most European royalty was Catholic. In The Scarlet Letter, the reader finds out that Hester was once of royalty, but her family lost their wealth. She was then married off to a rich man who payed the family a large …show more content…
By this point Chillingworth knows something is up and goes into his bedroom. Chillingworth unbuttons Dimmesdale’s shirt and uncovers there is an A carved into his chest. Now Chillingworth has his guy.Throughout the rest of the book, until the end when Dimmesdale actually confesses his sin to the community and dies, Chillingworth is continuously playing mind games and toying with Dimmesdale. Hester pleads with him to cease his actions, but Chillingworth simply responds by saying, “A mortal man, with once a human heart, has become a fiend for his especial torment!” The guilt and fear within Dimmesdale caused him to become a hypocrite and not tell the truth until it was too late. Dimmesdale is a highly revered pastor in The Scarlet Letter. When he had intercourse with Hester and she became pregnant, he became afraid. He knew if he confessed to the Puritan community about his sin, that he may be put death or his position may have been taken away. He even tells Hester to reveal his identity when he said, “What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him —yea, compel him, as it were —to add hypocrisy to