Guilt can destroy a person, body and soul
This theme is relevant to the book because it describes many of the characters. It describes Dimmesdale well because the guilt was consuming him. Him as a person, his body, and his soul are destroyed because the guilt made him feel horrible. When the Hester and the Reverend meet in the woods, Dimmesdale explains that his guilt and shame “burns in secret” (Hawthorne 173). The use of the word burns shows how the guilt is affecting his soul. It also describes Hester because as time went on, her scarlet letter and guilt deteriorated her into a skeleton of her former self. This is true because once Hester casts off the scarlet letter and her past guilt, Hawthorne writes that “ Her sex, her youth, and the whole richness of her beauty” rushed back to her body (Hawthorne 183).
The choices people make determine what they become
This theme is relevant to Hester. Hester made two main decisions that decided what she became. First, she decided to sin with Dimmesdale. Second, she decided to make the best of the scarlet letter. Hester’s sin of adultery determined what people saw her as. She became known for the adulterer in town. It determined her reputation throughout the book. On the other hand, Hester decided to make the best of her situation and she became known as able and strong-willed because of her choice.
Within each person is the capacity for both good and evil
There are many characters that embody this theme. Although Hester has done an evil sin, she turned out to have a good side by helping out in the community. Pearl also has the capacity for good and evil. The whole sixth chapter of the book chronicles Pearl as both good and evil. Hawthorne describes Pearl as an infant “worthy to have been brought forth in Eden” (82). And yet later in the chapter, he describes her as “an imp of evil, emblem and product of sin” (Hawthorne 85). Chillingworth also embodies this theme very well. Throughout the whole novel he is characterized as an evil and ill-natured man, but at the end of the novel, he leaves Pearl a large inheritance, which shows his good side.
People grow stronger by enduring and embracing hardship and weaknesses
All of the issues that came with having the scarlet letter made Hester a stronger person. She embraced the things that were not easy to embrace and became a stronger person because of it. Hawthorne writes “Shame, Despair, Solitude! There had been her teachers,-stern and wild ones,- and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss” (180). This theme is also prevalent when the town begins to accept the scarlet letter to mean able instead of adulterous. Hester uses what could have crippled her as a person and uses it build her own character and grow stronger.