Free Essay - Evil in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

Evil in the Scarlet Letter   cardinal belief that people live by is that evil is the nature of mankind, provided there ar others that feel man has good intentions but those intentions terminate be overrun by the devil. Nathaniel Hawthorne points out that the former is true of distributively(prenominal) people in the novel The Scarlet Letter.   In this novel, there are three main characters who commit evil and sinful acts, but each act is at a various degree of sinfulness (i.e. the sins brook worse as the story goes a-long). These three sinners, in the eyes of the prude community, are the beautiful Hester Prynne, the esteemed Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and the cold-hearted doctor, Roger Chillingworth. Like Hawthorne, I count that evil is the nature of man but that there are different magnitudes of evil some choose to fight it, like Hester, and some choose to give in, like Chillingworth. Hester Prynne, a strong willed and brave woman, in reckon to the two addition al people, has committed the least amount of sin in the novel. In the eyes of the Puritan community, though, she has committed one of the worst workable sins that can be imagined adultery. They feel she is horrendously corrupt, yet it is not truly her fault.   Hester is the victim of her husband, Roger Chillingworths (formerly Roger Prynne) stupidity by sending her to New England by herself, while he remained in Europe. Chillingworth even admitted that it was his fault when he voiced, It was my folly I extradite said it. But, up to that epoch of my life, I have lived in vain.(Ch.4, p. 68) Hester is overly a victim of fate. She has no way of knowing if Chillingworth is dead or alive when the Indians capture him after he arrived in North America. She suave goes against the strict Puritan rules, and breaks Commandment 7, which was often punished by death. Arthur Dimmesdale is a strong pillar of the community and a very devoted Puritan.    What could he do that is worse than young Hester Prynnes appalling act of adultery? advantageously he goes a little further into the same sin. First of all, he commits adultery with the abandoned Hester. Then instead of admitting his sin to the public, he keeps his blackened secret in his heart, knowing it will eat at him for the last out of his life until he reveals it.