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Secret sin is one of the themes most focused on in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Each of the three main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, has his or her own secret sins. Hester’s secret sin is not confessing the identity of Pearl’s father. Likewise, Reverend Dimmesdale’s secret sin is committing adultery with Hester. Committing a much darker sin, Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, is guilty of violating another human’s heart and soul. All of these characters wish to confess their sins to lift the burden of guilt off of their shoulders, but only one of them is truly able to confess. Each Character has a secret sin that he or she wishes to confess and each of those sins affects the character that committed that sin as well as other characters in the story. Hester’s sin is highly influential in this story because it affects each of the characters involved. Her sin, which is not revealing her sexual partner, weighs heavily on her conscience and also leads to torment from other people who want to know the identity of Pearl’s father. Because she feels the obligation to keep her sin hidden, for the purpose of protecting Dimmesdale, Hester does so. This silence, which is not wishe