Реферат: The Effects Of Sin In The Scarlet

not confess until seven years after the crime took place. Although he never

received a punishment from the government as Hester did, he punished himself

night and day. He was severely tortured with guilt in his heart, and carried out

prolonged vigils, fasts, and other physical damage to himself. As a result of not

confessing his sin, he despised himself above all other things. The fact that

his parishoners love him more than they had after he told a sermon about

hypocrites makes him loathe himself all the more. Over the seven years that

this story takes place in, Dimmesdale becomes very ill. He becomes pale,

nervous and sickly. After a while, it gets to the point where he uses a cane to

walk, and people are afraid for his life. The reason for his illness is not

disease, but the effect of sin and guilt on his heart. Finally, after putting

himself through a living hell for seven years, Dimmesdale’s dying words are

his confession.

Roger Chillingworth comes to Boston to seek out his wife, Hester

Prynne. When he arrives, she is standing upon a scaffold with a baby in her

arms. After finding out what was going on, the first thing he says is “It irks me,

nevertheless, that the partner of her inquity should not, at least, stand on the

scaffold by her side. But he will be known!- he will be known!- he will be known!”

This foreshadows the sin that he commits, which is greater than Hester and

Dimmesdales’. Chillingworth devotes his entire life to finding Hester’s partner in

crime and punishing him. He suspects Dimmesdale and so becomes his doctor and

moves in with him. Once he is certain of his culprit, he keeps him alive to live in

agony. The effect of his great sin on his own character is that of a complete

transformation to evil. His physical characteristics become twisted and corrupted,

as does his soul and life purpose. His one-track mind leads him to eventual self-

deterioration. He is the worst sinner in the book, and once his transformation was

complete, there was no turning back.

The way sin affects the lives of the characters in the book, and the way they

each deal with it is both enlightening and unsettling. In a way, one can see why the