The Scarlet Letter 10

“Among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister’s miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence: Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”(Ch.24: 236) Hawthorne expresses the purpose of writing this novel in that short sentence. He creates characters who have sin and disguise these sins for their own salvation. Slowly these sins …

…its conviction of sin to develop within his characters. The message of this novel is beneficial because it is applicable to today’s society. Sins have the power to change a person into an opposing figure of what they originally were. Hawthorne’s message teaches the audience a lesson in coping with life’s blows. Each individual character displays both senses of truth and evil and a lesson of purity is developed throughout the book.