So in some ways, it was almost a gift that Hester's community knew of her sin. She could accept the punishment and continue her life and Pearl's, but most importantly, she didn"t the let the sin destroy her inner spirit. Wearing the scarlet letter had the long-term effect of helping Hester surmount her guilt, gather her strength and bravery, and move on with life. What Hester undergoes is more like resolution than penitence in the end. Her most important accomplishment was her ability to overcome her sentence. She accepted her sin and accepted herself. She learned to love who she was.
In total contrast to Hester, Pearl's secret father, Arthur Dimmesdale, the town minister, does not confess his sin until after it completely destroys him. He hides his .
adultery and fails to claim Pearl as his daughter for seven years. His punishment is guilt and self-condemnation, increased by the torture by Roger Chillingsworth; Hester's undisclosed husband and the town's physician. "Happy are you, Hester," says Dimmesdale, "that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!" (188). As his shame and inner guilt increases, he suffers total decline, both mentally and physically. By this he underwent self-torture including fasting, self-flogging, and all-night vigils. " his cheek was paler and thinner, and his voice more tremulous than before- when it had now become a constant habit, rather than a casual gesture, to press his hand over his heart" (118). When he publicly confesses his adultery and stands openly with Hester and Pearl in the final scaffold scene, it is the only sense of relief for him. "The spell was broken. The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies, and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek- (251). By admitting his sin, he finally frees himself from his guilt and from Chillingsworth's hold over him, which allows him to die peacefully.