Throughout time, people have been persecuted for doing what they feel is right simply because the society around them feels it is wrong. Sometimes the persecuted escape punishment, but sometimes the persecuted will take their sentence with courage and try to make a change. Such a task was never more difficult than in the Puritan community, where a strict, unforgiving religion presides over the people. In The Scarlet Letter, a woman of sterling character is branded for having committed adultery. The story focuses on her and her partner’s penance without penitence as they try to make peace with themselves and their community.

Hester’s adultery comes to light when she becomes pregnant in the absence of her husband. For her sin, she is forced to wear a red “A” on her clothing, marking her as a sinner.

Despite her good characteristics, her compassion and courage, she is now looked upon as less than a person. The townspeople mock her, slandering her name further. She is made to stand on the scaffold in the middle of town to be gawked at, not as a woman, but as a sinner, one under the influence of the Devil. Although she is a masterful seamstress, her community dictates that she may not sew wedding gowns due to her impurity. Even the children learn to hate in the community of the “Chosen.” When Hester walks with her child, the children consider flinging mud at them until Pearl chases them off.

Hester’s child is a punishment in herself, and, even if Hester had departed for Europe, Pearl would still act as her penance. Pearl constantly reminds her mother of her sin by not allowing her mother to escape the “A”’s influence. When Hester spends time with her daughter away from the stabbing eyes of the other Puritans, Pearl always asks for the meaning of the “A.” Pearl is infatuated with it, making one of grass for herself until her mother scolds her for it. In the forest with Dimmesdale, Hester finally casts off the letter and lets her hair down, freeing herself, yet Pearl acts as though she does not recognize her mother, and Hester is forced to bind up her hair and herself as she puts the “A” back on her bosom.

Hester’s responsibly shines through all of this. She does not see her adultery as a crime. She sees it as an act of love between two people, and love is the purest of all emotions. Having married a man she did not love, who was not there for her, Dimmesdale was like a blessing from God. She loves him, and sees Pearl as a gift from God, even if she tortures her mother. Hester will endure the punishment the town gives her by her own accord, but she will never be penitent; she will never declare that her heart has caused her to do wrong. She simply hopes that her life will warn other young girls so that they know either to choose the right man, or to be prepared for what unfaithfulness will bring. It is her penance to do this mission, to suffer for others for the sake of purifying her soul. That is why she does not leave the Puritan community or give up Pearl when the girl is nearly taken from her.

Whereas Hester accepts her penance with a confidence that she has not done wrong, a conflict between penance and penitence erupts within her partner. Arthur Dimmesdale is a minister, a messenger of God. The Puritans see him as a role model, as a man of absolute goodness and purity, and Dimmesdale feels that he should live up to this expectation. The reverence that the community gives to the introverted minister is all he has after his brief affair with Hester comes to an end. He sees Hester being horribly punished for the same crime that he has committed, and feels that he too must serve penance. He whips himself, even carves an “A” into his own chest, yet he cannot hide from his guilt. Dimmesdale’s guilt, however, does not stem from his adultery, but from the fact that he is unpunished. His soul yearns for the freedom of truth, so much so that he goes onto the scaffold in the night and yells, hoping that the townspeople will hear him, but afraid to lose their respect.

Being a minister, Dimmesdale cannot accept that he has done something wrong when it felt so right. He is at conflict with the very code he serves. Worse yet, he still wishes to be with Hester, and wants to be a part of his daughter’s life. It tortures him when she asks if he will hold her hand upon the scaffold with Hester. Even Hester’s husband tortures him with Pearl, constantly suggesting that they examine her features to find the father. Torn between loyalty to his “unholy” family and loyalty to the Puritan’s God, Dimmesdale finally confesses not so much to his sin as his sadness moments before his death. He declares his sin, but instead of rejecting it, he embraces it as he asks his daughter to kiss him. Although he is never sorry for what he has done, he has served years of penance, and is seemingly forgiven.

At the end of the book, nothing has really changed. Pearl escapes the Puritan’s hate by leaving with her mother for Europe. Hester returns to the same fate she was promised, an unmarked grave, shared by her lover. Their closeness at death (even if their bodies are not even close to touching) is symbolic of her denial of sin. She wants to be with Dimmesdale no matter the consequence of public opinion. Hester only hopes that God can see the purity of their love, as she has tried to prove her love for God as well by punishing herself for a crime she did not commit.