Hester “the Scarlet Letter” & Abigail “the Crucible” Essay

The main character, Abigail, of Arthur Miller’s book, “The Crucible”, and Hester of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, “The Scarlet Letter”, have many common and distinct characteristics. Both beautiful and young, full of and secrets and sin, and fall in love with people they can’t be with. But differ in the way they were punished, what they have done, and their relationship with their lovers.

Let’s talk about the similarities between Abigail and Hester. Beauty is the most common similarity between the two. Abigail, being the youngest, was around the age of 17. Hester, a little bit older than Abigail, in her 20’s. Both young and fully developed made them such beauties in the stories told. Another obvious similarity between the two was that they both kept secrets of their sins. For example, Hester, kept the secret identity of her lover, Arthur Dimsdale, so that he wouldn’t have to suffer for his sin. And Abigail kept her secret love affair she had with John Proctor because he was married and that meant adultery. This leads to another great similarity. They both fall in love with people that can’t be with. Like mentioned earlier Abigail falls in love with John Proctor, but can’t be with him because he was already married. Hester is the opposite way around, she had an affair with Arthur Dimsdale, but she is married to Chilingsworth. Both Abigail’s and Hester’s love for them creates major problems in the stories.

Now since the some of the examples for the similarities have been shown to you lets talk about the differences. Even though Hester and Abigail were sinners, Hester was

the only one that got truly punished. Hester, in the beginning of “The Scarlet Letter”, was punished with the letter “A”, for adultery, across her chest and humiliated in front of everyone.