The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthrone

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne highlighted three important characters which are Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. The first character that has been introduced by Hawthorne is Hester Prynne. She is portrayed as a sinner in this novel as she must wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ as a sign of punishment because of the illegal affair. This is because she is the wife of Chillingworth. Prynne is known as strong women as she has to support her daughter alone unlike other women during that time. Other than that, she refused to name the men whom she commits adultery with and as the result, she has to stand the humiliation alone. She is visualized as a mother figure to her society by which she is not only good in taking care of her daughter but she is also good at the society. She is good to the poor and provides some clothes and food for them.

The second character that can be found in this novel is Roger Chillingworth. He is Prynne’s husband, who abandons her by living her alone in America while he is in Netherland. His action shows that he is very uncaring and not responsible towards his wife as if he is gambling his own wife. He claims to be seeking revenge for the sake of his wife as she is publically shamed and was forced to wear the scarlet letter. Besides that, he is known as the true devil as he is associated with secular and misuse of knowledge. Besides He is also interested in seeking revenge for what has happened to his wife and not because of justice. He always thinks about the destruction of others rather than a compensation for a wrong.

The third character is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. He is a scholar and respected minister, whom has an illegal affair with Prynne and led to the birth of an illegitimate daughter, Pearl. He is portrayed as the secret sinner in which he betrays his own core by committing one of the biggest sins and hid it. He feels guilty to Prynne as no one knows that he is the father of Pearl and she has to face the punishment alone and led to the deterioration in his spiritual and physical condition. At the end of the novel, he admitted that he is the father of Pearl before he died, holding Prynne’s hand.