But Chillingworth assembles a huge sin by marrying Hester so he could take her youth; he admits: "Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay."... I have said it. But, up to that epoch of my life, I have lived in vain."... Thou and I, Hester, never did so."...
Like Hawthorne, I believe that evil is the nature of man but that there are different magnitudes of evil; some choose to fight it, like Hester, and some choose to give in, like Chillingworth. ... He committed it when he married her and took away her youth; he admits: "Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay" (15). ... Thou and I, Hester, never did so!" ...
"If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer!" ... She received 100 lashes for "illicit relation" with two other men after her husband death. ...
