The Scarlet Letter: Evil and Mistriss Hibbins Evil can be defined as, "That which is the reverse of good, physically or morally; whatever is censurable painful, disastrous, or undesirable." In the novel "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mistriss Hibbins can also be defined in those terms. She is believed to be evil by many of the characters. Henry Louis Mencken once said, "It is a sin to believe evil of others, but is seldom a mistake." In this novel he was right, Mistriss Hibbins is evil. However, she is an important character who appears more often than most people realize and her evilness has