Scarlet Letter Quotes About Sin, With Chapter and Context

The Scarlet Letter quotes about sin that show up most in essays come from three characters: Hester, who sins openly; Dimmesdale, who hides it; and Chillingworth, whose revenge Dimmesdale calls worse than either. Nathaniel Hawthorne published the novel in 1850, and it is set in Puritan Boston in the 1640s. The quotes below are grouped by what they say about sin, with the speaker and chapter for each.

Hawthorne’s chapter numbers are consistent across editions, so they are the safest thing to cite. Page numbers vary.

Public sin: Hester and the letter

Hester’s sin is known from the first scaffold scene. The town’s answer is to make it visible and permanent.

“On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A.” — Narrator, Chapter 2.

The letter was meant as a punishment, but Hester embroiders it beautifully. Essays often read this as her refusing to be only ashamed.

“It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.” — Narrator, Chapter 2. This is the letter’s first job: isolation.

“Her sin, her ignominy, were the roots which she had struck into the soil.” — Narrator, Chapter 5. It explains why Hester stays in Boston when she could leave. The place of her sin has become the place she belongs.

In the same chapter, the narrator says the letter gave Hester “a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts.” Her public sin makes her notice everyone else’s private ones.

Hidden sin: Dimmesdale

Dimmesdale is the father of Hester’s child, and he spends most of the novel preaching while hiding it. Hawthorne treats his secret as worse for him than the letter is for Hester.

In Chapter 3, Dimmesdale publicly urges Hester to name her partner, which is to say him. His words are an argument against his own silence.

“What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him—yea, compel him, as it were—to add hypocrisy to sin?” — Dimmesdale, Chapter 3.

Hester refuses. “I will not speak!” — Hester, Chapter 3.

By Chapter 11, the congregation loves Dimmesdale more the worse he feels. “He had spoken the very truth, and transformed it into the veriest falsehood.” — Narrator, Chapter 11. He tells his listeners he is a sinner, and they hear humility instead of confession.

“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” — Narrator, Chapter 20. This is the clearest statement of what hidden sin does to Dimmesdale.

The worst sin: Chillingworth

Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, arrives just as she is being punished. He takes a false name and attaches himself to Dimmesdale as a physician, and his revenge becomes the novel’s darkest sin.

In Chapter 4, he admits some of the fault is his. “We have wronged each other.” — Chillingworth to Hester, Chapter 4. He goes on to say he was first to do wrong, by marrying a young woman when he was old and cold.

In the forest in Chapter 17, Dimmesdale ranks the sins directly.

“We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin.” — Dimmesdale, Chapter 17.

He continues that Chillingworth “has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart.” The key idea for essays is “in cold blood.” Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin was passion. Chillingworth’s is deliberate.

Pearl as the product of sin

Hester’s daughter Pearl is described as both a punishment and a blessing. The Puritans see only the first.

“An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants.” — Narrator, Chapter 6, describing how the town’s children and adults see Pearl.

Pearl is also the only character who keeps pressing Dimmesdale to acknowledge them in daylight. In that sense she works as the novel’s conscience.

Does sin change Hester?

By the middle of the book, seven years have passed, and the town’s reading of the letter has shifted.

“Many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength.” — Narrator, Chapter 13.

But the narrator adds a warning in the same chapter: “The scarlet letter had not done its office.” Hester has become stronger and more independent in her thinking, but not penitent in the way the Puritans intended.

In the forest, she says something the town would call a second sin. “What we did had a consecration of its own.” — Hester to Dimmesdale, Chapter 17.

“The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers.” — Narrator, Chapter 18.

Confession and the moral

Dimmesdale finally confesses on the scaffold in Chapter 23, with Hester and Pearl beside him, and dies there.

“Is not this better than what we dreamed of in the forest?” — Dimmesdale, Chapter 23.

In the conclusion, the narrator gives the lesson he takes from Dimmesdale’s story.

“Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!” — Narrator, Chapter 24.

This line is the one to use for a thesis about hidden versus revealed sin. Hawthorne’s point is not that sin can be avoided, but that concealing it does more damage than the sin itself.

Using these quotes in an essay

Cite the chapter, and make clear whether a line comes from a character or the narrator. Much of the book’s judgment about sin is in narration, not dialogue, and teachers notice when a narrator’s line is credited to Hester.

For a short quote, blend it into your own sentence. For a longer passage, like the Chapter 17 lines, a block quote may fit better. Our guides on how to quote a book in an essay and how to analyze a quote in an essay cover both. If you are comparing how different novels treat guilt, our posts on Macbeth quotes and Animal Farm corruption quotes use the same format.

FAQ

What is the main sin in The Scarlet Letter?

Adultery is the sin the town punishes. The novel argues that Dimmesdale’s hypocrisy and Chillingworth’s revenge are worse.

Who says “We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world”?

Dimmesdale, in the forest scene in Chapter 17. He is referring to Chillingworth.

What does the scarlet letter stand for?

It stands for adultery, though the word is never written out. By Chapter 13, many townspeople say it means “Able.”

Which quote best sums up the theme of sin?

Most teachers point to “Be true! Be true! Be true!” from Chapter 24, because it states the novel’s moral directly.