Many punishments in the Puritan society are public. The point of this is to humiliate the “criminals” and make them feel as if they need to repent. There is nothing that the magistrates enjoy more than public confessions of the guilty (in text citation). The Scarlet Letter was written in the 1850’s and was based in this type of society. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the two main characters commit a similar sin but experience a different outcome. Hester and Arthur commit a very similar and related sin. Hester Prynne commits a sin of adultery.
She is a married woman whose husband is lost at sea and sleeps with another man. Prynne actually becomes pregnant and has a child named Pearl,whose name holds great significance. Arthur Dimmesdale is a Reverend who commits multiple sins against the Ten Commandments and also the Cardinal sin. The sins he commits are fornification, false witness, and the sin of pride. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale commit their sins of adultery/ fornification together. Arthur commits his sin of false witness by not stepping up and saying he is the man who Hester committed adultery with and Pearl’s father.
He commits a sin of pride by his thinking he is better to lie and cover up his sin but continue to teach God’s word than to just admitted to his sin. The two made the same mistake but suffer differently from it. Hester Prynne is given her punishments by the magistrate. The magistrate was extremely strict and cruel. Hester is given multiple punishments: she is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” which stands for adultery, has to stand on a scaffold for hours and be inveighed by views, and she is sentenced to some time in prison. Due to the “A” and everyone knowing her sin, she is hunned which can be considered a punishment as well. Hester and Pearl live on the outskirts of town and anytime they see anyone they are talked about negatively. Arthur Dimmesdale’s punishment was not from the magistrate it is rather self inflicted. He feels awful about what he’s done. The guilt constantly is haunting him. The guilt is affecting him so much his health actually is declining. He suffers from pains in his chest as well. It is thought that he either carved a letter “A” resembling Hester’s or that God is burning it in his skin.
Hester’s long lost husband happens to be a physician and is trying to “help” Arthur, but he happens to torturing him because he knows of his guilt. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are given very different punishments, and both suffer in different ways. The outcomes of their lives are drastically different as well. Arthur plans to flea the country with Hester and Pearl. He gives a sermon about what he’s done, but the people don’t realize and only love him more. He takes the scaffold to confess his sin and reveal his one “A” but he feels as if he cannot do it alone. He asks Hester and Pearl join him on the scaffold.
While he stand on the scaffold, he feels so extremely guilty that he dies standing up there on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl by his side. Hester deals with her sin and punishment in an entirely different way. Hester raises Pearl and cares for her all by herself, even when people attempt to take Pearl away from her. She is able to build a small business doing embroidery. After some time Hester is able to regain respect from the townspeople. She over comes her sin and punishments. She survives. Her “A” changes in meaning from adultery to able to angel, and she wears it with pride.
Hester eventually fleas the country with Pearl and returns many years later. When she comes back she is still wearing the “A” even though her punishment no longer exist. Hester dies back in Boston, and gets buried next to the person whom she truly loves, Arthur Dimmesdale. In the end of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, “Yet one tombstone served for both. All around, there were monuments carved with amorial bearings; and on this simple slab of slate… relieved only by one ever-glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow: ‘On a field, sable, the letter A, gules. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne have different punishments and outcomes even though they commit a similar sin. Could the outcomes differ because Hester’s punishment is served and she gets the burden off her heart? Hester is able to live a life not hiding her secret and she is able to ameliorate her broke life. Arthur Dimmesdale is occulting his secret and is constantly dealing with guilt. Is this the reason for his demise? Both lived a very difficult yet drastically different live and now they lie together.
