The Scarlet Letter is probably his best-known work and is a novel about the consequences in Puritan society of a seduction. The seduction has taken place perhaps a year before the opening of the novel, but the fact of the seduction is incontrovertible because of the baby Hester Prynne has borne. This fact is Pearl, and her existence is thus a statement of what has occurred, a reminder of the community response, and a challenge to the community which holds that nothing good comes from an act of moral failure. The child's mother is the only person being punished for this sin, though this is a sin that could not have been committed alone. Hester will not reveal the name of her partner in sin, and she bears her public burdens with stoicism and courage. Her sin is a sin of passion, but this passion is never evoked directly in the novel except in the personality of the child. It is less the seduction itself than the response to it that is important in the novel. Dimmesdale suffers greatly because of this seduction, a sin he committed with greater knowledge than that of Hester and with greater culpability as a result. His is the true hypocrisy, for he is a man of God and the spiritual guide for the community. In addition, he is one of the instruments of her punishment. Not only is he a clergyman who should remain above such things in the eyes of society, but he is also living a lie by allowing Hester to be punished while he remains a secret sinner. Yet the greatest sin is that of Chillingworth, for he harbors hatred in his heart and tries to destroy others because of that hatred. The Puritan community might not readily accept that his is the worst sin, but given the course of events, the community would understand that the sins against nature committed by Chillingworth are indeed the most heinous.
Hester flourishes as Dimmesdale grows weaker, and the reason for this is that Hester has admitted her sin and has stood before th...