Guilt.

After talking about how Hester's reputation is starting to change in a positive way, I was suddenly reminded of the Wong Fu short, Just a Nice Guy.

Her selfless deeds are similar to Nick, the main character; they're both constantly helping others, while putting aside their own needs. However, as nice as these deeds are, they're not easy to deliver. Hester's "blameless purity of her life" (Hawthorne 157) while marked with the scarlet letter is her way of repenting past sins. Because she was deemed an adulterer, she forces herself to become selfless and tries to outweigh good against evil. This bring out a positive result;however, Dimmesdale tries to keep his sin a secret, and the guilt ultimately causes him to preach powerful messages. This also has a positive outcome, but Dimmesdale's internal guilt is far greater than Hester's. Therefore, it's better to admit your guilts and ask for forgiveness than to just wallow in secrecy. One time I broke my dad's iPad case, but I didn't tell him about it. I felt bad because he thought he was the one who broke it. We both ended up feeling bad, when I should have been the only one feeling bad. Therefore, I feel like once Dimmesdale admits his misdeeds, his guilt will eventually disappear and then Hester, Dimmesdale and Pearl can live happily ever after. (until they eventually die of random ailments like the common cold because of their super ratchet and demonic doctors)

And those cemetery commercials. It was a grave mistake making those