Secret Sin
Secret Sin
The Secret Sin
Have you ever kept a secret that caused you emotional pain and forced you to lie to people you care about? White lies like telling a person their dress is pretty when you really think it is the ugliest thing ever made is not a harmful lie because it does not negatively affect anyone. A lie like telling the police you do not know anything about a murder when you clearly saw the murderers face is extremely harmful because you are putting the public in danger and could face either a fine or jail time for withholding information from the police. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne the three main characters keep secrets from one another, which causes them to lie to one another and experience psychological stress.
Hester Prynne is a young married woman who is living alone in the New World while her husband is taking care of business in England. While living in the New World she has a baby who is fathered by Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The Puritan society did not condone adultery, so Hester had to stand on a scaffold for a short time and wear a letter “A” on her chest. While on the scaffold she was asked who the father was. Hester kept this a secret so Dimmesdale would not have to undergo the public ignorance. While on the scaffold, Hester sees her husband, Roger Chillingworth, who later visits her in jail and makes her promise to keep his identity a secret. This becomes emotionally hard on her when she sees the negative effect her husband has on Dimmesdale. Because Hester has to wear the “A” she moves to a small cottage so the town will not be able to criticize her as easily. Only being able to talk to her daughter causes Hester to have a different attitude. She wore her hair under a hat and wore drab colored clothing. A constant reminder of her sins was her daughter, Pearl, who she described to Dimmesdale, “She is my happiness! – She is my torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me, too (112)!” By keeping the secret of her husbands identity and the secret that Dimmesdale is the father she causes herself constant psychological pain.
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale was a highly respected minister in the town but was burdened with a terrible secret. Dimmesdale had a baby with Hester, a young married woman who lives in the town. They keep the fact that Dimmesdale is the father a secret, so he does not face public punishment. One affect of this secret is that Hester keeps Dimmesdale from having a relationship with his only child, which effects him emotionally. Dimmesdale has a lot of psychological problems because Hester has to go through public punishment while he suffers quietly. He also knows he has sinned but cannot bring himself to tell the public. Due to his psychological guilt it caused him to inflict pain upon himself in private. Dimmesdale would take a bloody scourge and “plied it on his own shoulders, laughing bitterly at himself. It was his custom to fast – not however to purify the body and render it the fitter medium or celestial illumination, but rigorously and until his knees trembled beneath as an act of penance (141). Having to keep the secret that he is a father causes him psychological pain.
Hesters husband, Roger Chillingworth is consumed with revenge from the man who had