In The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the important topics that it talks about is adultery. Adultery is defined as voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than that person's current spouse or partner. In other words, unfaithfulness to your partner.

As many of you know, adultery is something that many people struggle with today. Our society views adultery as a sin which damages relationships. We all have our different views on how adultery affects us, but really it is the fear of it that hurts us the most, and the shame that comes with it.

“It’s about the fear that adultery puts things at risk: from the organization of daily life to the very moral fabric of the nation” (Kipnis 294). Laura Kipnis, who wrote an article about adultery, called “Adultery”, from the insights from the book called Critical Inquiry, focuses on how adultery damages a relationship, even before it has happened. Some people can already sense when someone is being unfaithful to them, and that is when the relationship starts to fall apart.

Kipnis argues that the real social contradictions of society when it comes to adultery are “suffering suburbanites and petit bourgeois individualism” (Kipnis 307). In other words, singling out people who would seem to commit adultery more because of their social standing and where they come from. This leads to society being more separated from each other, damaging relationships within society. When it comes to the question of the repercussions of adultery, people seem to care more about how others view them now that they have committed the sin. Society has become so self-conscious about themselves that even adultery to them has become something that they think seems to only hurt them; they never seem to take the blame blaming others for their hurt.

Kipnis adds that everyone has “been born into social forms which fighting for happiness looks like a base and a selfish thing”, which lasts only for a short time until it ends (Kipnis 327). The results of adultery are clear: people will get hurt; that is inevitable. But that does not mean they will be hurting forever, there is still room to heal. This does not mean that the intents of having adultery are always evil. Everyone has their reasons for committing adultery. Some do it as an attempt for jealousy, others for the feeling of satisfaction, and others to feel (real) love again. Adultery will forever damage a relationship, and even more so the structure of society; but there is always room for healing and restoration.