Secret Sin- An essay about the appearnce vs reality of sin done in the book.

Nathan Miller 12/17/03 Secret Sin Any sane mind searches for internal justification for its blunders. Even the smallest sin can feel like a tremendous burden. One of the failures of the Puritan society was that their rigid and strict lifestyles forced their citizens to expurgate their real feelings and emotions. In contrast, citizens in a less repressed society expose their inner devils, and as a result, can move on with their lives. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The …

…transgressions. When we uphold such acts, it is at the cost of our human purity. Our souls subconsciously needed to be openly displayed regardless of how seemingly pure they may seem. It is our basic rights as individuals to have external justification for internal misdeeds. To withhold our wrongdoings is to deny our selves the natural and important healing process. In Dimmesdale's case, he denies himself his liberty for so long that it killed him.