“The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is loaded to the brim with underlying themes and symbols, from the first page to the last. The most important of these, however, is the scarlet letter itself. Its influence runs deeper than any other symbol in the novel, as none of the others sustained such a firm grip over the story, characters, and ideas like the letter did. The scarlet letter is a key to most of the thematic elements of “The Scarlet Letter.” One of the most longstanding and critically important themes of the novel is the concept of sinning, and whether you choose to embrace your sins proudly, or hide them away so nobody else can see them. Hester proudly exhibits the scarlet letter, embracing her sin, while Reverend Dimmesdale
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His main goals were to exact revenge on Hester for having an affair with Dimmesdale, and Dimmesdale for sleeping with his wife. He never intended to embark on that mission, however. until he returned to Boston and saw his wife, Hester, with an infant in her arms and a scarlet letter embroidered into her bosom. “Chillingworth returns, unrecognizable after years of captivity with the Native Americans, and finds his wife on a scaffold, the scarlet 'A' signifying adultery sewn onto her dress, and another man's infant, Pearl, in her arms. Unable to associate himself with Hester's shame and reveal his identity as the husband she publically wronged, he assumes the name Roger Chillingworth and begins plotting his revenge against Hester's unnamed lover”(Study 1). Seeing the letter and child Hester possessed drove him mad, and it caused him to fabricate a plan of vengeance. When it it came to said vengeance, he enacted it onto Hester and Dimmesdale in wildly different ways. Dimmesdale received the harsh, cruel torture, as Chillingworth slowly destroyed him from the inside and outside, wearing him down until he was left as not as a human being, but as a living carcass. Conversely, Roger did not do a single thing to Hester, rather, he let her continue her life as an outsider. “
His main goals were to exact revenge on Hester for having an affair with Dimmesdale, and Dimmesdale for sleeping with his wife. He never intended to embark on that mission, however. until he returned to Boston and saw his wife, Hester, with an infant in her arms and a scarlet letter embroidered into her bosom. “Chillingworth returns, unrecognizable after years of captivity with the Native Americans, and finds his wife on a scaffold, the scarlet 'A' signifying adultery sewn onto her dress, and another man's infant, Pearl, in her arms. Unable to associate himself with Hester's shame and reveal his identity as the husband she publically wronged, he assumes the name Roger Chillingworth and begins plotting his revenge against Hester's unnamed lover”(Study 1). Seeing the letter and child Hester possessed drove him mad, and it caused him to fabricate a plan of vengeance. When it it came to said vengeance, he enacted it onto Hester and Dimmesdale in wildly different ways. Dimmesdale received the harsh, cruel torture, as Chillingworth slowly destroyed him from the inside and outside, wearing him down until he was left as not as a human being, but as a living carcass. Conversely, Roger did not do a single thing to Hester, rather, he let her continue her life as an outsider. “