Book: Scarlet Letter Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne Title of Paper: Allegiance This essay Parallels Arthur Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter to Kenneth Lay, the former CEO of Enron

In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale is a young Puritan pastor who has committed adultery. While Hester was looked at with scorn for the sin that she had committed, Dimmesdale was greatly respected by the whole community, who were unaware that he had committed the same sin as Hester. The way in which Dimmesdale broke his allegiance to himself, Hester, and his Puritan community can be compared to the way that Kenneth Lay, …

…Yonder divine man! That saint on earth, as the people uphold him to be, and as-I must needs say-he really looks!"(220) It was even said that he gave better sermons in the years after he had committed the sin. This is why the community didn't suffer because of his sin until he died, which left the town without a pastor. The Enron stockholders trusted that Kenneth Lay would do whatever was best for the company.