My essential questions developed from The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The essential question I decided upon is Why are secrets always dangerous? This questions goes under the societal and psychological category.

“The real problem with keeping a secret is not that you have to hide it, but that you have to live with it, and think about it” (Slepian 2). Research shows the increase of physical differences in secrecy, but also the mental changes. Anxiety and depression have a strong chain attached to secrecy from having to constantly watch what you say and expose to others. Vigilance and concealment causes constant exhaustion and lower well-being for the secret holder. With a secret in the back of your mind, a constant distraction develops; growing into the secret holder feeling isolated from others.