In "The Scarlet Letter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the concept of sin is examined through the lives, attitudes and actions of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Sin is defined through how the characters reacted and how it changed their lives in this Mid-17th Century Puritan society. Hester Prynne, a resident in New England whom her husband had sent over from Great Britain and is later imprisoned for the crime of adultery. It was because she was pregnant but did not have a husband. Hawthorne first introduces her with a scarlet letter "A" on her chest, coming out of a prison door and holding a three month old baby. She had to be publically shamed for being an adulteress and to be interrogated who the father of the baby was so he would be punished also. Hester was forced to wear the scarlet letter "A" on her chest. That letter was supposed to be a constant reminder of her sins to her but, "They [Townsfolk] said it meant Able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength  (XIII, 3). Hester accepted the punishment of what she did, stopped living in solitude, and became more involved in society. She was not anymore known as that lady who was burdened with an "A' on her chest because she was an adulteress, but that "A" came to mean able because of the charitable work she was doing. Hawthorne, through Hester tells us that you can be redeemed from sin if you face it, and accept what comes with it and it may even make you a better person than before. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale was a clergyman in the Puritan community that preached some of the most powerful and inspiring sermons. He is the father of pearl and thereby the man who commuted adultery with Hester, but his sin was greater because he kept it in secret and left Hester alone to face punishment. Dimmesdale says to Hester as she was on the scaffold "If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more ef