Jane Manwelyan Bewilderment at the Hands of Sin "No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally becoming bewildered as to which may be true. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, this quote applies to the two main characters of the novel. It applies to Arthur Dimmesdale in a literal way; he clearly is not the man that he appears to be, and the guilt …showed first 75 words of 1373 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1373 total…believed at that time. The people of Boston saw adultery as a sin, and there was no way that any good or love could come out of it. When Arthur's character is tested, he struggles to find the answer but is unable to, and literally dies trying. Hester, on the other hand, does not give such a noble attempt, but rather choses, whether consciously or not, to go along with the mainstream views of adultery.