Dealing With Guilt in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter Essays

Dealing With Guilt in The Scarlet Letter    Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempted to expose the varying ways in which different people deal with lingering guilt from sins they have perpetrated. The contrasting characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale ideally exemplified the differences in thought and behavior people have for guilt. Although they were both guilty of committing the same crime, these two individuals differed in that one punished themselves with physical and mental torture and the other chose to continue on with their life, devoting it to those less fortunate than they.    In order to show this difference in the two main characters, they both had to be put on relatively same grounds. Hawthorne achieved this by making them both involved in the same offense: adultery. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale both resided in the same town and both knew the same people in the settlement. However, despite this effort for equality, it was impossible to make both characters play on the same level. For development and in...