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During a person’s lifetime, secrets in a personal relationship can at times, either tear people apart or bring them together.In the historical romance, The Scarlet Letter, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne, displays many accounts of deception and secrecy that have destructive consequences for many of the book’s characters.Roger Chillingworth, Arthur Dimmsdale, Hester and Pearl Prynne, all major characters in the book, are entwined in plots and subplots involving secrecy and deception throughout the book.
Hester Prynne kept a very important secret from Roger Chillingworth.As a result, Roger suffered many unhealthy side affects.His physical appearance changed.
there came a glare of red light out of his eyes, as if the old man’s soul were on fire, and kept on smoldering duskily within his breast, until, by some casual puff of passion, it was blown into a momentary flame (148).
Roger was being deceived and yet was also deceiving.He was Hester’s husband yet would not tell.He longed to know Pearl’s father and spent his life in the pursuit of punishment and torment of the person he suspected.
… it might well be that the physician was not careful then, as at all other times, to hide the malevolence with which he looked upon his victim (136).
This subplot, woven throughout the book, illustrates the destructive nature of deception and secrecy.Hester and Roger were torn apart as husband and wife and Roger’s life was eventually ruined because of his obsession to discover the truth.
Hester’s deception and secrecy also affected the child, Pearl Prynne.Her relentless pursuit of the true meaning of the scarlet letter led her to be labeled as an impish child and the demon child.As Hester watched her child “…with a bright but naughty smile of mirth and intelligence she threw one of the prickly burrs at Reverend Mr. Dimmsdale” (116).
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