Hester's Sin

[twin1]

In class, Mr. Cheddar has said, more than once, that he doesn’t feel that Hester believes that her sin is adultery. Has anyone found another possible sin?

In my opinion, Hester feels that she deserves to be punished for ruining the lives of three people: Dimmsdale, Pearl, and Roger Chillingworth. Hester says, “but now, that there could be no good event for him or me or thee, or me, who are wandering together in this gloomy maze of evil, and stumbling at every step over the guilt wherewith we have strewn in our path” (170). Hester feels that she has caused then ruin of two formerly upright men and her innocent daughter, alluding to the fact that this may be the crime that she committed, not adultery.

Before coming to this conclusion I tried to look at the Seven Deadly Sins and the Ten Commandments to see if there was a specific sin, other than adultery, on either list that related to Hester. Though I made no connection perhaps someone else might. Websites with a list of the commandments and the deadly sins are listed below.

10commandments.biz/biz/articles/2005/list_of_ten_commandments.php

www.answers.com/topic/seven-deadly-sins

[catherinem07]

I agree, it is as though Hester blames herself for setting Dimmesdale on the path for destruction and she shows guilt for putting Chillingworth in his predicament. However, despite her feelings of remorse regarding Chillingworth, she seems to wish she had not sworn to keep his secret from Dimmesdale because she, "having cast off all duty toward other human beings, there remained a duty towards him <Dimmesdale>; and something whispered me that I was betraying it in pledging myself to keep your counsel" (Hawthorne 167). This shows a shift in loyalties away from Chillingworth for she recognizes his shrewd ingenuity,
Hester continued to question her silence on the matter for it was driving Dimmesdale to the “verge of lunacy” and she began to believe there may have “been a defect of truth, courage and loyalty on her own part in allowing the minister to be thrown into a position where so much evil was to be foreboded, and nothing auspicious to be hoped" (162).
Blame constantly haunts Hester in regards to Pearl also. She fears her daughter and questions whether Hester’s own “lawless passion” will have ruined Pearl and brought her into the “hostile world” where “everything was against her… the child’s own nature had something wrong in it” (162).