The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about the trials and tribulations of Hester Prynne, a woman living in colonial Boston. Found guilty of adultery, Hester's punishment is to wear a visible symbol of her sin: the scarlet letter 'A.' Through the book, the reader comes to know Hester, the adulteress; Dimmesdale, the holy man Hester had the affair with; and Chillingworth, the estranged husband of Hester who is out for revenge. The Scarlet …showed first 75 words of 1271 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1271 total…the lying, hypocritical ways he practices.         Through the punishment of the three main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, Hawthorne clearly shows that hypocrisy is a sin meriting terrible punishment. The sin of adultery, for which Hester is branded, is not the true sin in The Scarlet Letter. Rather, it is just one possible sin that can lead the sinner and those involved into the treacherous depths of hypocrisy, the true sin of The Scarlet Letter.