In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter shame is the dominant theme. Every central character wears their shame in a different way.

Hester Prynne, the main character, has to wear a visible symbol of her shame. The Puritan society in which she lives passed judgement on her for having an affair. Hester was not caught in the act however she did become pregnant and since her husband was presumed lost at sea she had no valid reason for being with child. As punishment Hester had to stand before the people of Boston on a raised platform for hours while her fellow townsmen and women stared at her with scorn and disgust. After the public shaming Hester is forced to wear an embroidered scarlet letter over her heart for the rest of her life. Hester’s shame is very public and for several years she is the social pariah of Boston. However in the ensuing years Hester and her daughter Pearl live an upright, virtuous, and morally sound life and regain the respect of the society in which they live. Hester’s scarlet letter transfigures from a symbol of immorality and sin to a badge of virtue and honour.

The Reverend Dimmesdale, the young minister in the village of Boston, wears his shame very differently from Hester. His shame, the secret that he has hidden for years, is very private. He, a leader in God’s church and a paradigm of holiness, is the other guilty party in Hester’s affair. Hester would not name Mr. Dimmesdale when she was caught thinking that she could spare him the shame of public opinion. Instead the good Reverend suffers more than Hester ever did. He becomes increasingly ill over the course of the book, constantly clutching at his heart. In the final pages Reverend Dimmesdale confesses his part in the affair from the same platform on which Hester stood seven years before. At the end of his confession he rips open his shirt to reveal a scarlet ‘A’ imprinted on his skin over his heart. Unlike Hester, whose scarlet letter was a symbol which could be removed should she leave the Puritan society, Mr. Dimmesdale’s shame was etched into his very being and, after poisoning his very soul, manifested itself physically.

The third character whose shame is visible throughout the book is that of Roger Chillingworth. Mr. Chillingworth arrives in Boston at the time of Hester’s public shaming. After she is returned to the prison he visits Hester and it is revealed that he is her husband, long thought to be dead. As they discuss her infidelity Chillingworth acknowledges his part in her shame in that, though he was indeed shipwrecked years before, he could have sent word to her much sooner. Chillingworth also feels Hester’s shame because she is his wife. He therefore extracts a promise from her not to reveal his true identity to anyone. He also promises Hester that, although she will tell no one who her partner is in the affair, he will find out who he is. I believe that at this point Chillingworth turned his shame and guilt to the pursuit of revenge. As the book progresses Mr. Chillingworth’s appearance becomes more and more evil as his shame and guilt, which is transformed into the drive for revenge, converts his appearance from that of a cultivated intellect to that of a hellish fiend.

Hawthorne is masterful at portraying the different facets of shame in The Scarlet Letter. He does so in a descriptive and realistic way that forces the reader to confront the brutal aspects of this intense human emotion and leaves the reader pondering the after-effects of shame from one small action or decision.