Hester Prynne
...Hester Prynne, a young woman at the time of the novel. Hester is considered the main character of the novel, because she is the bearer of The Scarlet Letter' from the title, which is a red A, meaning that she has taken part in the sin of adultery. The people of her town make her wear this because of their Puritan beliefs.
Hester Prynne is stuck in a trap of forbidden love with Arthur Dimmesdale, with whom she has an affair. She becomes pregnant which gives away their secret affair; however, the people of the town do not know that the father is Dimmesdale. Since they don't know this, and because Dimmesdale is too cowardly to admit that he's the father and take the heat along with her, Hester is the person that is most punished, by being made to wear the A.
The bearing of this outer shame prevents Hester from getting over her guilt of her sin, and also it prevents Arthur Dimmesdale from getting over his shame and guilt. Although they should still keep some shame and guilt for their actions and sins against God, they should still be able to ask forgiveness from Him, and live their lives. Never forgetting their mistakes, of course, but letting them alone. The sin of adultery was confessed by one of the two, Hester, but Arthur Dimmesdale tried to keep it a secret, which, in time, tore him apart physically and mentally.
Hawthorne, throughout the novel, explains how un-confessed sin could eat away at the conscience and destroy the soul, as it did to Dimmesdale. Hester, who had confessed her sin of adultery, bore the shame and scorning that came with the letter, but in the end, as a result of Hester's confession, the sin does not destroy her, but instead it makes her stronger and braver and stronger than she had been. Near the end of the narrative, the four protagonists are about to set sail on a boat. While they are standing on the scaffold, the reader can...
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