Writing Analysis

Below is a paper that I wrote for my American Literature class my senior year.  The purpose of this essay was to compare and analyze how the different characters in the Scarlet Letter were affected by the choices that they made.  The purpose requires me to argue one way or the other.  This meant that I needed to provide examples and evidence from the book.  My teacher was the audience for this paper.  With my teacher being the audience I needed to make claims and back them up with evidence from our reading.  I think that this is something that I could have done better with this paper.  I think I could have pulled more examples from the book and provided better explanations with the claims that I made.  I would describe the genre for this paper as a report and a book analysis.  With this type of genre I needed to pull vital information from the book and explain how I think that it affected the characters.  My organization was probably lacking for this genre because I only mentioned one character without going into any detail on the other characters.  That is one way I could have improved the genre component of this essay.  With this paper I had to convey a stance as to which character I thought was most affected by their decisions.  I intended for my stance to come across as well thought out and ample information given as to why I took that particular stance.  I probably could have done a better job of providing more examples of why I choose the stance that I did.  The media I used for this paper was print.  There really wasn't many directions I could go with media because my teacher wanted it formatted in a specific way.




In The Scarlet Letter many characters are affected by the sin of Hester and Dimmesdale. 
The entire book is centered around the theme of sin, and the effects of sin on others.  Hester,
Pearl, and Chillingworth are all affected by sin, however Dimmesdale is the most affected by his
sin.  Dimmesdale is the most affected by sin because the sin creates inner turmoil in his life
because he does not know how to deal with the hypocrisy that surround him, and it causes a

Dimmesdale’s sin causes much turmoil in his life that he did not know how to deal with. 
The main thing that Dimmesdale struggled with was the hypocrisy of his actions.  The
townspeople praised him for his keen insight into their lives, yet Dimmesdale could not accept
this because of the sin he had committed.  His response to this struggle was to physically torture
himself.  He would whip himself and deprive himself of food and sleep (Hawthorne 126).  This
shows how much he was affected by his sin.  He would go to great lengths to try and prove to
himself that he was still a good person.  By torturing himself he hoped to inflict pain and
suffering that he thought should come from the citizens of the town. Dimmesdale also
experienced great mental distress from his sin.  In chapter 12 he was hallucinating on the
scaffold because he was so sleep deprived.  Also, after Hester and Dimmesdale made their plans
to escape to Europe, Dimmesdale was very tempted to wicked things to the citizens of the town. 
For example, he was tempted to teach children naughty words (Hawthorne 192).  Clearly this
would not be expected from a minister, and it shows how jumbled his mind had become. 
Dimmesdale was hardly able to contain any urges, and had little self control.  Dimmesdale’s
weak mental state is another reason why he was the most affected by this sin.  None of the other
characters experienced a physical or mental pain on the level that Dimmesdale did. 

The sin Dimmesdale committed causes an illness that sucks the life out of him.  The
townspeople recognized paleness in his cheeks, his voice was decaying, and he was becoming
frail and weak (Hawthorne 106).  Dimmesdale was so ill that Chillingworth had to live with
Dimmesdale to take care of him.  Dimmesdale’s illness and the torture he experience from the
sin were so bad that he would have been better off dying.  Hester makes this point to
Chillinworth while they were in the forest.  Chillinworth responds by saying that he wants to
keep Dimmesdale alive as long as possible so he can continue torturing him.  This shows that
Dimmesdale had to fight and struggle each day just to be able to keep going.  Although Hester
may have experienced this emotionally, no other character comes close to what Dimmesdale
went through.  Dimmesdale’s weak mental state is apparent through his illness.  He recognizes
that if he confesses his sin, his illness will go away.  However, he refuses to confess his sin.  No
one in their right mind would want to endure this physical pain and torture if they could easily
get rid of it.  Nevertheless, Dimmesdale refuses to confess his sin, showing how mentally fragile
he is.  His illness clearly shows that he was greatly affected by his sin. 

The combination of Dimmesdale’s weak mental and physical state is why he was the
character most affected by sin.  Dimmesdale had to deal with a possible terminal illness, and
much turmoil in his life.  No other character suffers from the sin as much as Dimmesdale does. 
Although Hester may have been affected mentally from the sin, the combination of
Dimmesdale’s mental and physical state are why he was the character most affected by sin.