In the scarlet letter, how does HER sin make the townspeople feel about themselves, about her, and sin?

Question

in the scarlet letter, how does Hester's sin make the townspeople feel about themselves, about her, and sin?

Answer 1

It makes them question the nature of sin, and whether they can so easily condemn someone as good or bad. When Hester is forced to wear the letter, she doesn't hide out like the townspeople would expect. She goes out and about and helps others, and it makes them realize that a person can redeem themselves. They regret the way that they treated her, and understand that sometimes a good person does a bad thing- they are not necessarily just plain bad.

Answer 2

I have not read The Scarlet Letter, but there are a number of on line study guides, and quite a few other resources on the Internet that can help you with this novel.  Most of them have good information.  Have a look at these sites, and you should get some help with your work.  If you do a search here in the Yahoo Answers search window you will find additional help because hundreds of questions have been asked here about The Scarlet Letter.

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http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet/

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http://www.studyguide.org/scarlet_letter...