Scarlet Letter 1

"People say...that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her[Hester] godly pastor, takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation"(49).

I'm not pointing fingers just yet, but Reverend Dimmesdale seems to be the mystery man who cheated with Hester. Despite the lack of evidence, it is human nature to defend yourself when you are challenged or when all of the negative attention is brought to you which is what Dimmesdale is doing here. Although he was not directly accused of anything and he is not suspected of anything just yet, he does what many guilty people do, and that is attempting to distance or cut the ties connecting them to whatever can convict them. Dimmesdale attempts to play the situation off and express his "anger" so that he is above everything and everyone else. A similar situation can be found in the character Abigale Williams from The Crucible. In the novel, abigale attempts to establish power over certain individuals and remain under the radar. In doing so she discredits many of Salems townspeople in order to remain invincible. However, just like Abigales reign was not continuous, Dimmesdales "plan" will soon corrode as well as his position in society.

"Here, there was a taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life, working such effect, that the world was only the darker for this woman's beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne"(53).

Perhaps error and imperfectness lie in society rather than societies people. In an attempt to develop a semi-perfect society, the puritans fail to realize that human beings are naturaly flawed, and have been since the beginning of human life on earth. In punishing those who sin, society is only breeding generations of sinners like the croud who publically gossipped about Hester. This croud failed, as well as society, to do the one thing that could ultimately perfect society, and that is love. We are all sinners in the eyes of God if we do not love everyone. Everyone is inherently good, and until people like you and me, and the characters in The Scarlet Letter can learn to love others as they trully are beneath their external layers, society and life will always and forever be flawed and imperfect.