ABSTRACT
Hester Prynne (a central figure in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel written in 1850) lived out her life in seventeenth-century New England with the weighty sense of the shame of her adultery, a sentiment that was reinforced continually by a social environment that reminded her of her error. Her partner in her deviancy, the young pastor of the local church, Arthur Dimmsdale, for a period resisted acknowledging his culpability even while appreciatively (and respectfully) experiencing Hester’s bravery in not naming him as the father of Pearl, the child born of their adultery. The Reverend Dimmsdale eventually deteriorated in health and came to the decision to confess his partnership with Hester in illicit sex. The sin, the deviancy, was first born by Hester and the consequences for her reinforced by the judging community. But the denial by Dimmsdale—the hypocrisy—carried an even more potent consequence. In a community that honored purity and personal fidelity, his gradual recognition of his status as a hypocrite brought emotional and physical costs on him in excess of those brought on Hester by her bad behavior.
