The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an interesting novel that has many different themes present throughout the story. The theme that is most clearly expressed is that truth is healthy and falseness is toxic. The main characters of the story all have some form of falseness that imprisons them and keep them from being fully free. The level of falseness that each of the characters have are at different levels. Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale experience the difference between being truthful and being false, however: they each experience it in a different way.

Having committed a crime, Hester tries to live her life as truthfully as possible. Because of this, she chooses to wear her scarlet letter compulsively acknowledging the fact that she had done something that doesn't abide by the rules of the Puritans. Carrying on with her life, Hester slowly but gradually becomes respected by the...