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Unlike modern authors, Nathaniel Hawthorne is more concerned with what sin causes rather than what causes sin. In his stories, such as The Scarlet Letter, this is especially present. The focus of the plot is not how or why Hester chose to have an affair with Dimmesdale, but what happened to the two as a result. The setting of the story is set after the sin has already been committed, lasting several years after to …

…for his wrong-doings. Once Dimmesdale dies, Chillingworth soon too dies, as he has nothing to live for. Like a "leech", there is no one for him to survive off of. In writing this story, Hawthorne could have gone about the theme of sin leads to experience in numerous different ways, but he chose to tell the story of two sinners, Hester and Dimmesdale, not leading up to their crime, but what happened in its wake.