All Sins are Not Equal

All Sins are Not Equal


Today most people would agree that there are some actions worse than others and the punishments of these actions show that. A cold blooded murderer would get a much larger sentence than a teen getting charged for petty theft. The Puritan townspeople of The Scarlet Letter would argue that sin is sin and that any and all sins must be punished publicly and harshly. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne sin is one of the major themes. The main character Hester Prynne moved to Boston, Massachusetts and assumed her husband had died when he never showed up. Two years later Hester is found pregnant which would only point to one thing, adultery. Hester is sentenced to wear the letter ‘A’ on her breast for the rest of her life making her an outcast to the town. When her husband, now known as Chillingworth, shows up in Boston he vows to find the father of the baby. After a series of unfortunate events Chillingworth moves in with the town minister and the father of Hester’s baby Pearl. Dimmesdale, the troubled minister has resorted to self torture to punish himself for his sin. He lived for many years with the prying danger of Chillingworth right under his nose. There are many sinners in this story but, Chillingworth’s sin is the worst of them all because his was intentional and came from the deepest darkest part of his heart.
Hester and Dimmesdale are the most obvious sinners because they slept together when Hester was still technically married. The people apart of society in this book are also sinners all for their own ways. They are hypocritical and they punish people for sins that many of themselves have also committed. Chillingworth has made it his reason to live to find out who the father of the baby was and then make his life living hell. Hester and Dimmesdale had no right to do what they did when they knew that Hester was married. Unfortunately it happened, they made a mistake and they were punished for it. When they decided to make the decision they did,...

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