Why Does Hester Suffer The Worst

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The One Who Suffered the Worst In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter, Hester’s character suffers far worst than the other two major characters because her sin became part of who she was and how everyone saw her as. Though I believe that Hester suffered the most, other people believe that Hester didn’t suffer as much because of the way she handles her problems; such as, keeping both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth’s secrets , refusing to let them take Pearl from her, and not hiding from the public after her sin is revealed and she is punished. Nonetheless, while Hester does tolerance her suffering better than the other characters, this also shows that she suffered the worst too. In fact, Hawthorne gives frequently evidence of this throughout The Scarlet Letter. Some of the evidence he gives is the constant reminders that she will live with her sin the rest of her life, her relationships with Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, and how she deals with her sin and the result of it. One of the reasons I find that…show more content…
Chillingworth constantly interrogates Hester . “And what of him?” “What choice had you?” “What evil have I done the man?” (Hawthorne 154). He depresses her and tries to make her feel guilty, sometimes for things she couldn’t control, like never truly loving him. He as well wouldn’t stop bothering her, he intended to travel along on the boat with them and threatened to reveal Dimmesdale’s secret. Yet, even worse than Chillingworth’s rude and evil nature was her suffering caused by Dimmesdale. Indeed that her love for Dimmesdale was causing her great pain and anguish. From seeing his agony and pain, she suffered by knowing that she was, in some part, responsible for it. “Hast thou not tortured him enough?”.. “Has he not paid thee all?”..“It was myself!” cried Hester, shuddering” “It was I, not less than he. Why hast thou avenged thyself on me?”(Hawthorne
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