Often in Society people are criticized, punished, and despised for their individual choices and flaws. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author attempts to show the way society casts out individuals simply because their ideas differ from the common values. Two main characters in the novel that are alienated by society for different reasons include Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. Arthur Dimmesdale alienates himself in the novel both socially and spiritually. …showed first 75 words of 594 total…

…showed last 75 words of 594 total…that she feel that she is not the same person. She is not only alienated from other people but she can not even turn to herself for support. This self-alienation is most damaging to her because she is going through the stage in her life of finding out who she is and the scarlet letter interrupts this. She is not only forced to stop her development, but take on a whole new path in life.