Theme Of Shame In The Scarlet Letter

A wise person once said, “Shame is nothing more than denial of the truth.” Shame can come in many different forms at any time during life. In some circumstances, it can lead to embarrassment and in extreme cases, isolation. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, shame is a constant presence. Throughout the book, it changed the way that the characters perceived themselves and those around them. The book The Scarlet Letter is set in Puritan New England in the seventeenth century, when God and religion played a large role in government. Crimes, especially ones contradicting religion were punished harshly. In the book, Hester Prynne is sent over to the new land by her husband who plans on coming over and finding her later. After two years …show more content…
When Hester first sees Chillingworth, she holds Pearl even closer to her chest as though feeling a need to protect the child. The two characters then find themselves face to face with each other in the jail after Hester and the baby are in need of a doctor, who happens to be Chillingworth. It is then revealed that the mysterious caretaker is Hester’s husband who had been gone for years. The man then vows to find the father of the baby no matter the cost. Chillingworth then continues his doctor act so that he can get closer to Dimmesdale, whose health continues to fall. He feels regret over letting his wife come to a new land alone and shame of his connection to Hester so he decides to take it out on Dimmesdale who he suspects is Pearl’s father. The physician starts to torture the sick Reverend by being around constantly, but when Hester notices this she decides to confront her husband. The two talk about Chillingworth’s change since finding out about Hester’s new life and how that has made him a vengeful person, “But it was the constant shadow of my presence!-the closest propinquity of the man whom he had most vilely wronged!-and who had grown to exist only by this perpetual poison of the direst revenge!” (168). Chillingworth feels as though the whole situation was his fault because he let Hester leave alone. He is now ashamed of this choice and his connection to such a horrible sinner. He decides to not punish Hester directly because she already has the letter and the baby for life, which is torture enough. Instead he goes after Dimmesdale which consequently tortures Hester as well since she is seeing the man she has a deep connection to be tortured for her actions. As the book goes on the reader sees Chillingworth try to stop Dimmesdale from confessing the secret. The doctor knows that if the secret is known to all

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