The Power of the Truth

Another really crucial component of The Scarlet Letter is the idea of truth being one of the most powerful forces. Many secrets are kept, mostly by Hester; the identity of Pearl's father and The identity of Roger Chillingsworth being the most important. The idea of the truth first crops up when the Magistrates ask Hester to reveal who her partner in sin is, then again when Chillingsworth asks the same question. Chillingsworth it is then revealed is Hester's husband who had just arrived in Boston, he keeps his identity a secret rather than have to face the crowd as the shamed husband of an adulterer and it becomes his obsession to uncover the truth of Hester's shame. When he does uncover his identity his constant malicious presence makes the man suffer immensely; "Better had he died at once! Never did mortal suffer what this man has suffered. And all, all, in the sight of his worst enemy!" At this point Hester believes that had she been completely honest, told Dimmesdale who Chillingsworth was and told the town who the father was it all would have been better. She believes, as Dimmesdale does that the suffering that he is going through is punishment because he never had to wear the scarlet letter on his chest and wasn't publicly shamed. In the end Dimmesdale does die, but he confesses everything in front of his entire congregation before he does. He dies peacefully, and Chillingsworth feels the pain of having all the power he held over the reverend taken away by the truth. I know it sounds corny, but the fact is, the truth set the reverend free. He was suffering because of the sins he never confessed to, Hester however was not suffering because every secret she kept wasn't her own. Hester was honest about her guilt, not that she had a choice. The morality behind the idea of truth in this novel is simple; tell the truth and you're fine, you may be punished but there is nothing anyone can really do to you. Lie and you will be punished severely in ways that you didn't think guilt could affect you.