In the current time era, authors like to write about love and the good things in life. Nobody wants to write about revenge, adultery, and lies. Nathaniel Hawthorne is the exception to current literature. Hawthorne has written about a woman’s love affair in his novel The Scarlet Letter. The sin of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingsworth had profound impacts on each of their lives.

First and foremost, Hester Prynne committed the act of adultery, which profoundly impacts her self-esteem and personality. In the beginning, she knew “that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another” (Hawthorne 37). As time goes on, Hester finally realizes that “Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,-stern and wild ones,-and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss” (Hawthorne 137). The women of Boston originally said that Hester “ought to die” (Hawthorne 36). Contrasting to original thoughts, in the end “The letter was the symbol of her calling…They said it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 111). Although Hester felt the guilt and shame of her sin at first, in the end she gains respect for herself and strength by her actions.

In the same way as Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale also committs adultery, but he was also the minister who lies about his actions causing him guilt and self-harm. Being the minister and adulterer he lies to his town and has a façade as “If a man wears one mask in public, and another in private, he will soon forget which one is real” (Hawthorne 138). Although he does not publicly announce his guilt for his sin “in Mr. Dimmesdale’s secret closet, under lock and key there was a bloody scourge. Oftentimes, this protestant and puritan divine had piled it on his own shoulders, laughing bitterly at himself the while, and smiting so much more pitilessly because of that matter laugh” (Hawthorne 85). This shows that Dimmesdale feels the guilt and shame but did not know how to cope with it; instead Dimmesdale commits self-harm to take out his remorse. After time had passed, Dimmesdale finally realizes what he had to do and “stand upon the spot, where seven years since I should have stood” (Hawthorne 173). At first, Dimmesdale was a liar and adulterer, but as time went on his conscience got the best of him, enabling him to deal with the consequences and confess his sins.

In contrast to Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth wanted revenge. After finding out about Dimmesdale being Pearl’s father, it “led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had wreaked upon an enemy” (Hawthorne 96). Starting out, Chilliingworth was a good guy because his “medicine is potent for the good” (Hawthorne 50). Chillingworth tries to help Hester and Pearl by giving them good medicine even though he knew that he was not the father of the child. Chillingworth was a soft-spoken man seven years ago but now “was a striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil” (Hawthorne 142). This shows that after being gone for seven years, Chillingworth is seeking his revenge against Hester and Dimmesdale after all.

In the end, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth all commit a sin and work through it in their own way. After suffering the consequences for each of their actions, the impact of the sin completely change who they are as a person. Although each sin that Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth commit would not always have a positive outcome, each of them dealt with the consequences of their sin. Whether it is adultery, lies, or revenge, each sin has a critical impact on each characters life.