"The Scarlett Letter": "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 true."

In Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", the quote "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 true." stands true in many forms. Both Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, prominent characters in the novel, convey this two-faced nature in the countenance of an overbearing Puritan society. It is this inner conflict, existing within all humans, that eventually brings about …

…as well as Hester's rejection of her "true self" that form the basis for this argument as well as the basis of human nature. Through this inner conflict, the downfall of both of these characters came about, along with the depletion of the very self values that held them together in the first place. In finally giving in to moral structures, these characters lost what was nearest to them, and lost themselves in the process.