P5+KZich

Begin Text:
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is about a woman named Hester who commits adultery with the reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. However, if one is to see The Scarlet Letter as a tale of love, bravery, and courage, he/she will not grasp the underlying aspects the author incorporated into the novel. Hawthorne uses the cycle of transgression, shame, repentance, and acceptance as a recurring motif to explore the nation’s national identity in the area of religion.

The first step of the cycle, transgression, was stepped into by almost all of the characters, three prominently being Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Hester’s transgression was the act of committing adultery while her husband was in Europe. In the setting of the book, committing adultery was an extreme sin while the act of committing adultery in Hawthorne’s time was merely looked upon as risqué. Hester immediately confessed but her partner, Arthur Dimmesdale, could not follow her lead. That is his transgression. By not being able to confess his sin, he basically is a hypocrite in that he preached about repentance of sins yet could not do as he told others to do. Roger Chillingworth’s transgression now comes into play. He vows to find the culprit who “defiled his wife” and torture him mercilessly. He eventually discovered that the culprit was indeed Arthur Dimmesdale and, as he promised, mentally tortured him.

The second step in the cycle is shame. Hester felt shame in the sin she had committed and acted accordingly. She moved to the outskirts of Boston and quietly resumed living under the scornful of the community. Dimmesdale was eaten away by his guilt essentially. He was the center of focus in the novel for a short time because Hawthorne really wanted to make it clear that he was suffering greatly. Chillingworth also felt shame even though the author never admitted to it. Chillingworth could be seen as drug addict in a way. He is ashamed by torturing Dimmesdale but is in control and does not stop. As his shame grows, so does the amount of torturing.

The third step of the cycle is repentance. Hester’s repentance is shown when she helps the poor and contributes to society by means of charity. Although she was not fully accepted back into society, the townspeople of Boston began to see the letter A as “Able”, not “Adultery.” Dimmesdale at the end of the novel finally repents his sin. His guilt from the sin he had committed was too much to bear and he die3d. Roger Killingworth’s repentance involves giving all of his money and belongings to Hester’s daughter Pearl. By doing this, this was his first act of kindness and indeed was a form of repentance.

The fourth and final step of the cycle is acceptance. Hester was finally accepted back into society after Pearl moved away and Dimmesdale had died. She finally became an appreciated member of society, but the town forgave and did not forget. The author, by having Dimmesdale repent his sin, implied that he went to heave. This was Dimmesdale’s acceptance. By proceeding into Heaven, Dimmesdale’s life was a success since he believed that getting into Heaven was all that mattered. Chillingworth was finally accepted after he died and gave all of his possessions to Pear. Pearl and Hester, finally seeing his kindness, forgave him and accepted him back into their hearts.

In conclusion, the cycle of transgression, shame, repentance, and acceptance is Hawthorne’s means of exploring the nation’s national identity in the area of religion. By Hester and Dimmesdale breaking the seventh commandment of the Bible, al of the characters were brought into the cycle. However, this cycle is invisible to those readers who go as deep into the reading as ink on a page.