The Scarlet Letter

Her responsibilities as a mother were sacred to her. It was the only sacred thing left in her life. It restrains her from plunging recklessly into an abyss of sin. (Hawthorne 14). She also concerns herself with doing acts of charity, and kindnesses for other people. Even though her life is difficult, Hester through her own doing rises above the scarlet letter "A" on her chest. .
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             In complete contrast to Hester, Dimmesdale doesn't publicly confess his sin, and it eats at him bit by bit. "He is not suspected by any of the townspeople. Even old Mrs. Hibbins, whose scent for moral carrion was as keen as that of a modern society magazine, can barely credit her own conviction. "What mortal imagination could conceive it!", " Many a church member saw I walking behind the music, who has danced in the same measure with me, when somebody was the fiddler! That but a trifle, when a woman knows the world. But this minister!"(Hawthorne 6). He is known as a very educated and pious man, loved and respected by all. This makes it harder for him to publicly confess his guilt. His health begins to fail, and his body is seized by nervousness. "Dimmesdale cares more for his social reputation than for anything else. His self respect, his peace, his love, his soul,--all may go: only let his reputation remain! And yet it is the selfsame false reputation that daily causes him the keenest anguish of all."(Hawthorne 7). He hides behind his social position, and his profession. Not growing wiser or stronger, but paler and paler day after day. But he did not have the audacity to reveal his sin. His despair wore him down, because he had violated the dignity of his position, and had broken a law that his education had made more prominent than any other law in his soul. Yet he had neither moral courage nor moral honesty, with all his impressive piety to come forth and assert their sins and their mutual obligations. (Loring 2).