Truth and Falsehood in The Scarlet Letter
Hester’s and Dimmesdale ‘s Falsehood to Chillingworth
Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale when Chillingworth was still in England.
Hester was not true to Chillingworth, because when she married him, she promised to stay faithful to him and she went against that word.
Hester kept Dimmesdale’s identity a secret from Chillingworth.
The A that Hester has sewn on her chest stands for adulterer and the sin she committed.
As a result of Hester’s sin she births a baby girl named Pearl.
Chillingworth searches for the man that Hester committed adultery with and finds him.
Hester’s Falsehood to Dimmesdale
Hester denies to tell Dimmesdale that Chillingworth is her husband.
Dimmesdale suffers greatly because he does not know that Chillingworth is Hester’s husband.
Hester reveals that Chillingworth is actually her husband to Dimmesdale while they speak in a forest.
To escape Chillingworth’s wrath, Hester and Dimmesdale decide to get on a ship and head back to England.
Dimmesdale’s Falsehood to the Town
Dimmesdale withholds the information that he was the one that had an affair with Hester, so he was not affected by his sin for a while.
Since no one knows that Dimmesdale was the man who impregnated Hester, only Hester and Pearl are scrutinized and judged at first.
Dimmesdale is a hypocrite, because he is a minister at a church that speaks against sins like adultery and he committed the sin himself.
As a result of Dimmesdale not telling the town of the sin he committed, he feels guilty.
At the end of the The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale gets on the scaffold at the end of the book with Hester and Pearl to confess his sin to everyone.