Theme Of Sin In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Register to read the introduction… One theme is that sin must be confessed or it will grow and fester like a disease and will eventually consume the sinner from the inside, out. This theme is expanded upon throughout The Scarlet Letter, and especially during the events leading up to the second scaffold scene. Dimmesdale "kept vigils...sometimes viewing his own face in a looking glass...tortured" (Hawthorne 152). His visions of an unforgiving god and of what that god will do to him because of his sin drive him to a near-insane state of being. He fails to overcome his overwhelming guilt by confessing to his congregation, driving him even closer to the edge of his sanity and health. His sin eventually kills him. One must wonder, if he had only stood with Hester on the scaffold at the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, would he have died at the final scaffold scene? The theme of confession one that affects all people everywhere.

Another theme in The Scarlet Letter is that evil exists in all things. One prime example is the way Pearl behaves. Even with Hester's attempts to discipline her daughter, Pearl inevitably disobeys. The townspeople of Salem believe that Pearl has the devil in her because she was conceived in sin and that her misbehavior continues for the seven-year-span of the book because of her sinful beginnings. They also believe …show more content…
Although on the surface it may seem like another tale of Puritanistic virtue, The Scarlet Letter is the embodiment of life itself. After reading this novel, one may find that many events in real life today can relate directly to events in The Scarlet