Sin has been present since the beginning of time and will remain forever. Over the ages, people have had different views on how sin should be recognized and punished. In Puritan times, sin was generally punishable by death. Therefore, some sins were deliberately hidden. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale becomes a victim of his own hidden sin. Dimmesdale is an adulterous partner with Hester Prynne, the bearer of the scarlet letter. He lives a lie and it tears apart his guilty soul. Another character with his own secrets and sins is Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth's hidden sin is revenge, and it reflects his whole life's purpose. It is obvious that these two men have secret sins, but how do these hidden transgressions affect their lives? Although Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth are both sinners, they are each affected differently by their sins - physically, emotionally, and mentally. Dimmesdale lives a lie, but he constantly feels guilty for his sin. In fact, he feels so contrite about his sin that he is physically damaged. He tortures himself with a whip, stays up late at night and starves himself until his knees tremble. Due to the stress he continually puts on his body, he becomes physically ill. Another way his iniquity affects him physically is the habit of placing his hand over his heart in pain, the same place where the scarlet letter is about Hester Prynne. Emotionally, over the years, he begins to hate himself and consider himself the worst sinner in all of civilization; as he himself said, “here I am, the only sinner in the world”. His constant focus on his sin drives him to the middle of paper to try to find Hester's partner and torture this man's emotions for revenge. Their sin becomes the only thing these men think about, consuming them to the point where nothing else matters, and ultimately costs them their lives. For Dimmesdale, his guilty conscience and his abuse towards himself are the causes of his premature death. For Chillingworth, his obsessive vengeance becomes permanently etched into his being and when the cause of his vengeance dies, he dies shortly thereafter. Both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are miserable sinners whose transgressions have different effects – physical, emotional and mental. It is evident that both men are seriously affected by their wrongdoings and end up paying with their lives. Work cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Scarlet Letter.” The Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ed. James McIntosh. New York: Norton, 2007.