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Scarlet Letter Character Analysis Essay

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The Character Within Whether one can accept it or not, inside all of us, there is good and there is evil. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, this idea exposes itself in three of the main characters. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict good and evil among the characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Hester is an outcast, but shows her light side by remaining kind to others, while her darkness shows as the sunlight cannot find her. In the novel, Hawthorne states, “It is our Hester, the town’s own Hester, who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!” (149). She is outcast and hated by the citizens of Boston for committing adultery, and yet remains kind and helpful to those in need. Although Hester keeps a kind heart, her darkness also remains as she tells Pearl, “Thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have …show more content…
Even though Pearl was not his child, Roger still cared for her. Leaving all of his estate to the child, created through adultery by his own wife, shows a strong light side of Roger concealed by his usual devilish ways. These ways are described when Hester asks Roger, “Art thou like the Black Man?” (Hawthorne 71). Evil and revenge have consumed Roger enough to make him comparable to the Devil himself. From here on out Roger becomes more and more evil until it consumes the old him completely. Roger starts out with a light side that darkness comes to

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