With every decision or action that is made, comes an outcome. One's principles can have an impact on how the person lives his or her life. As Hester Prynne did, one can choose to follow principles that are true and bear their consequences. Another choice is to hold back principles because of the consequences involved, such as Arthur Dimmesdale. Lastly, one could do as Roger Chillingworth did and ignore the principles in order to secure revenge. Whether or not a person acts on principles, the path he or she chooses to take has consequences involved.

Hester Prynne was the one character of The Scarlet Letter that stuck to her principles from the beginning and dealt with their consequences. Her strongest principle was to remain loyal to the guilty man, Dimmesdale, because she still loved him. 'Speak out the name! That and thy repentance may avail to take the Scarlet Letter off thy breast' (64). Hester knew that if she just revealed her secret lover's identity, she would not have to bear the shame alone and would not have to wear the red A. Bravely, Hester does not give the name of the man so that his reputation d

Examples from the characters of The Scarlet Letter show that one can make one of three choices when it comes to principles. The most honorable action would be to stick to the principles and accept their consequences. This is the action that God would want people to do, even thought the consequences may be harsh. On the other hand, one could choose to repress the principles to avoid facing their consequences. Then again, following this choice can lead to internal conflicts such as Dimmesdale's. The worst choice would be to pay not attention to principles to insure something such as revenge. It was shown that nothing really positive came out of following this path. No matter what a person decides to do, the direction they chose to head in has some sort of consequences involved.

In contrast, Chillingworth was neither like Hester or Dimmesdale in following and repressing the principles. Instead, Chillingworth ignored the principles to achieve one goal, revenge. From the beginning, Chillingworth vowed to torment the guilty man's soul. When Hester asked Roger if he was the Devil sent to ruin her soul, he answered saying "Not thy soul. No, not thine" (72). Chillingworth was in search of the guilty man's soul so that he could torment it. Eventually, he discovered Dimmesdale, who was sick. By moving in with Dimmesdale, it gave Chillingworth the opportunity to work his medicine on Dimmesdale, which actually did more harm to Dimmesdale's health. Chillingworth was also trying to find out more about Dimmesdale and if there is any corruption in him. "He now dug into the poor clergyman's heart, like a miner searching for gold" (118). How Roger tried to dig into Arthur's hard was by talking to him about the private details of his life. He pretends to be Arthur's friend to become closer to him, and even after they have an argument they make up for it. Living with Dimmesdale and acting as a friend did allow him to get closer to Dimmesdale. One night, Chillingworth sneaked up on Dimmesdale and unveiled his shirt, giving him an ev

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Approximate Word count = 1383
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)