In The Scarlet Letter, sin is a big deal for all main characters because it affects their life in ways they didn’t want it to. Without the sins that these characters were accused of, then there would have been no change in the characters and no consequence. The consequences that they go through help them realize what they needed to do right, if they chose to. The outcome of this novel was heavily relied on each characters reaction to the sin they committed .The sins of all the characters affected their lives tremendously.

Hester Prynne was convicted for the sin of adultery. After committing this sin, she feels lonely and even when she tries to help out with charity work she is still reminded about what she has done, “Be it accepted as a proof that all was not corrupt in this poor victim of her own frailty, and man shad law… no fellow-mortal was guilty like herself” (Hawthorne 75) .After a while, she is able to get people to see that she is still good, and the purpose of what the scarlet A was supposed to mean changed, “The letter was a symbol of her calling… that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able”(Hawthorne 142) .Not only did the meaning of the scarlet letter change, Hester had become “a bare and harsh outline, which might have been repulsive, had she possessed friends or companions to be repelled by it” (Hawthorne 143) . Hester’s sin not only changed her life but it changed her view on things and made her a better person at the end.

Arthur Dimmesdale, besides the sin of adultery, his major sin was the sin of hypocrisy . The first sign of this sin was when he tried to make Hester say that he was the man she was with, instead of announcing it himself, “I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner… though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee” (Hawthorne 57 ) .Even after he doesn’t announce that he was the one later on he still gives his best sermons but he cannot follow them himself, “They fancied him the mouth-piece of Heaven’s messages of wisdom, and rebuke, and love” (Hawthorne 125 ) .Dimmesdale, even though he went so long with the lie, was finally able to tell the truth to everyone after the election day sermon, “Now at the death-hour, he stands up before you!... and that even this, his own red stigma, is more than the type of what has seared his inmost heart” (Hawthorne 225 ). Even though it toke longer and he died shortly after, Dimmesdale was able to take control of his sin and let it out and accept it.

Roger Chillingworth had the worst sin of all three of the characters, and his sin was the sin of revenge. When Roger comes to the jail, this is when he starts to plan his revenge and he tells Hester “But as for me, I come to the inquest with other senses than the possess. I shall seek this man, as I have sought truth in books; as I have sought gold in alchemy” (Hawthorne 64).Roger even goes as far as coming into Dimmesdale and looks at his chest, finding something that lead him seek more revenge on him; “But with what a wild look of wonder, joy and horror!... But what distinguished the physician’s ecstasy from Satan’s was the trait of wonder in it!” (Hawthorne 120). After Dimmesdale’s death, Roger’s health seemed to get worse since he “ made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge… that evil principle was left with no further material to support it” (Hawthorne 230). In the end, Roger Chillingworth let the sin of revenge control his life, and it ended up making his life worse.

In conclusion, the sins of the main characters were the main part of what drove the novel. All the main characters had life changing sins, but it was up to them to determine how it would change their life. For Hester, she was able to make her sins better her, but for Roger, his sins only made him commit it over and over till he died. This shows that it does not matter what mistakes you make during life as long as you are able to better yourself from the mistakes that you made.