Symbolism in the Scarlet letter

The ninth commandment tells man not to give false witness.(Exodus 20:16) Nathaniel Hawthorn and Charles Dickens in their novels The Scarlet Letter and A Tale of Two Cities, respectively, both use punishment for deception as a recurring theme. Although they do so to different degrees and in dissimilar manners, both authors agree that deception is a sin that requires punishment. In The Scarlet Letter, the heroine, Hester Prynne conceived a child out of wedlock. Despite …

…worse than public shame is Dimmesdale's own cruel inner shame. Knowing what only he and Hester know, the secret eats away at every fiber of Dimmesdale's being. As the Puritans hold up Dimmesdale, the Romantics level him as a human. The Scarlet Letter is a myriad of allegorical theories and philosophies. Ranging from Puritanic to Romantic, Nathaniel Hawthorne embodies his ideas to stress his Romantic philosophies through Pearl, Hester, and Dimmesdale throughout all of this.