Through a careful analysis of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthrone and The Crucible by Arthur Miller; similar themes will be discovered. These themes include sin, punishment of sin, the devil, and love/lust. Through careful analysis and discussion one can see the obvious relationship that exists between these two works. The most obvious theme contained in both works is sin. In The Scarlet Letter, the sin committed is adultery and produced an illegitimate child. Hester Prynne and the outspoken and lauded Puritan minister Arthur Dimmsdale were the adulterers who committed the sin and fathered the child Pearl. Throughout the story Hester is dehumanized for her sin, while Dimmsdale is still considered the "omnipotent" minister. Similar to The Crucible, sin is put on trial. The Crucible directly addresses the themes and ideas of the Salem Witch Trials. The young girls and their "leader" Abigail are the focus of sin and evil in the girls and the community. Throughout the story accusations are "thrown" against other members of the community who are deemed righteous. Ultimately in this story the sin "comes" directly from the black man or the devil. The girls are believed to have made a pact with the devil and are now attempting to lure others to follow them. Overall, in both works the recurring theme is sin and how sin affects the lives of people and their communities. The scaffolding in The Scarlet Letter is extremely important. The most crucial scenes of the book take place here. The gallows is a place of public humiliation. The offender must stand before all his peers with them fully aware of his crime. Standing on the scaffold as a guilty sinner would also mean that they would be shunned, as Hester was, for the rest of their lives. This seems like a terrible punishment by today's standards; but the gallows was not simply a cruel instrument of humiliation and contempt. Scaffolding was society's way of righting a wrong and preventing it from happening again. The whole town was ashamed to see Hester, one of their own, before them for a horrendous crime. It strengthened their resolve to continue doing what was right in their minds. The gallows was not just a place of punishment. It was also a place of atonement.