The Secrets that Destroy Relationships rely heavily on truth and trust to be functional and healthy. Secrecy can destroy all of those aspects. The characters in the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne are caught in secrets, sin, and guilt. Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth are hiding secrets that ruin their relationships, and also their selves. Although keeping secrets appears to be in an individual’s best interest, those secrets destroy both the individual and the relationship he was attempting to protect. Hawthorne illustrates this through Pearl’s behavior, the deterioration of Chillingworth, and the destruction of Dimmesdale as a result of his position in the church. Pearl, Hester’s daughter, is very …show more content…
Chillingworth changed his name from Prynne to disassociate himself from Hester and her shame. Right after the meeting in Bellingham’s house, the narrator states that, “under the appellation of Roger Chillingworth… was hidden another name, which its former wearer had resolved should never more be spoken” (107). Nevertheless, Chillingworth has chosen to change his name, not only to distance his association with Hester, but to keep himself hidden while trying to find Hester’s lover. All the while Chillingworth is attending to Dimmesdale, Dimmesdale has no idea of Chillingworth’s plan for revenge or his real identity. Their entire relationship involves little honesty, on both sides, without either of them realizing at first. Eventually, The moment Dimmesdale finds out about this hidden identity, he feels horrified and his “character had been so much enfeebled by suffering… he sank down on the ground , and buried his face in his hands” (175). Dimmesdale feels betrayed by both Chillingworth and Hester. After this, Dimmesdale is on edge about being around Chillingworth, further intensifying his paranoia. He knew that Chillingworth was no longer a “trusted friend, but his bitterest enemy” (201). Dimmesdale was then aware of Chillingworth’s deep desire for revenge that …show more content…
It is illustrated that keeping a secret may be an attempt to protect someone, but it ultimately will ruin some aspect of the relationship. Relationships are constructed of communication, honesty, and trust, all of which are excluded when a secret is being held from one of the persons. The relationships presented in the novel all involve one of these. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth’s secrets end up with their death, an extreme end to a secret. Secrecy in today’s society may not end so violently, but it does ruin relationships, opportunities, and accountability. Hawthorne did an excellent job creating themes that readers can learn from throughout the book as a whole, and hiding secrets being a very significant
The first theme expressed in The Scarlet Letter is that even well meaning deceptions and secrets can lead to destruction. Dimmesdale is a prime example of this; he meant well by concealing his secret relationship with Hester, however, keeping it bound up was deteriorating his health. Over the course of the book this fact is made to stand out by Dimmesdale’s changing appearance. Over the course of the novel Dimmesdale becomes more pale, and emaciated. Hester prevents herself from suffer the same fate. She is open about her sin but stays loyal to her lover by not telling who is the father of Pearl. Hester matures in the book; becomes a stronger character.
French dramatist Jean Racine states, “There are no secrets that time does not reveal.” In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, we meet Hester Prynne who is, at the beginning of the novel, battling to keep her child’s father a secret. Eventually we come to find out that the father of her daughter, Pearl, is no other than minister Arthur Dimmesdale. However, if it had not been for Pearl, the reader might suspect that Hester and Arthur would have kept their relationship discreet. Arthur Dimmesdale seeks to hide the truth of his relationship with Hester Prynne, while she refuses to reveal the name of her child’s father to her husband, Chillingworth. As Racine said, secrets will be revealed in time, and eventually Pearl came along and became the one article that
In The Scarlet Letter, the main characters Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale are tangled in a web of deceit, which is the result of a sin as deadly as the Grimm Reaper himself: adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, describes the feeling of deceit using the main characters; for each of the cast the reaction to the deceit is different, thus the reader realizes the way a person reacts to a feeling differs between each character.
Years ago, Hester promised Chillingworth to keep his identity a secret, thus allowing him to do evil to Dimmesdale. Chillingworth believes that it was his fate to change from a kind man to a vengeful fiend. He believes that it’s his destiny to take revenge and thus would not stop until he does so.
“And be the stern and sad truth spoken, that the breach which guilt has once made into the human soul is never, in this mortal state, repaired” (158). Arthur Dimmesdale confesses his sin, but it makes such a big impact on him that he will always be reminded of it. The sin leaves a “breach,” or a hole, in him which cannot be fixed. Living in a Puritan community also makes it that much harder for Dimmesdale to keep his secret. Since the religion is completely strict and absolutely prohibits sins like adultery, he has no choice but to feel guilt and regret. The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel of gothic romanticism. It was written in the 1800s, but takes place in the 17th century. Hester Prynne lives in Boston, Massachusetts and commits adultery with Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. She is punished by the town and has to wear a beautifully embroidered scarlet “A” on all of her clothes, which stands for “Adulterer.” The Reverend keeps his secret for many years while Hester’s husband, Roger Chillngworth, comes back to town and seeks revenge. Reverend Dimmesdale confesses his sin and ends up dying. The character Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter is a dynamic character because in the beginning of the novel he is a healthy and intelligent minister, but towards the end, he becomes very guilty and emaciated.
Arthur Dimmesdale’s sin has made him believe that his ministry at the church has become better. Dimmesdale’s guilt has helped him become more in touch with his feelings which make his sermons more believable and therefore better. Before the guilt, Arthur Dimmesdale was a pretty boring man who spoke almost with no heart or feelings towards human emotions. As a man of the church he was losing people right before his eyes. His sin of adultery helped him feel what he couldn’t’ feel before. Dimmesdale 's words are now far more sensitive and deeper because he has the experience torturing him every day. Even with his fault, Arthur continued his life following Hester helping her the best he could as the guilt slowly sank in. Arthur Dimmesdale has now met Roger Chillingworth an English scholar. Chillingworth is Hester Prynne’s husband but agrees to not tell anyone of this because of the shame that he would get from his wife’s depravity. Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale become friends because of the bond they have with Chillingworth being Dimmesdale’s physician and medical caretaker with his health. Hester is the only one who knows both the identities of the two
The Power of Secrets in The Scarlet Letter & nbsp; & nbsp; Deception is defined by Webster's Dictionary as the art of misrepresentation. Throughout the history of mankind, the use of deception to promote oneself to a higher level, or to hide one's past, has been a common occurrences. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale both use deception to hide secrets from each. other, and from the rest of the town. & nbsp; & nbsp; Hester Prynne is the only one who knows the secrets of Dimmesdale. and Chillingworth are hiding from the townsfolk. Hester has to control her. desire to tell the truth and practice the art of deception to hide these secrets. When she will not reveal the father of Pearl, Reverend Dimmesdale says, "She will not speak." " & nbsp; It is & nbsp; ironic that the person who committed the sin with Hester is the one who announces publicly that she will not reveal the name of the other sinner. Later, Chilling worth wants.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne portrays a society filled with betrayel, secrecie, and sinners. The people of society do not show their true colors and hide their true intentions. Dimmsdale, Chillingsworth and Hester all have fallen to sin, however they all believe they are not the worse sinner and try to seek justice for themselves.
“To the untrue man, the whole universe is false,--it is impalpable,--it shrinks to nothing within his grasp. And he himself, in so far as he shows himself in a false light, becomes a shadow, or, indeed, ceases to exist.” (Hawthorne 115) Throughout the hostile novel The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne used contrasting settings to represent opposed ideas that were central to the meaning of the work. Some have argued that when it came to the theme that secrets have a destructive effect on the secret-keeper and truth, by contrast, was natural, a character evaluation would best advocate these differences. However, two settings, Dimmesdale’s house and the secrets that lie within, and the scaffold representing the truth, better embody the adverse ideas posed by the point at issue.
The Scarlet Letter is a classic novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne which entangles the lives of two characters Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale together through an unpardonable sin-adultery. With two different lifestyles, this act of adultery affects each of them differently. Hester is an average female citizen who is married to a Roger Chillingworth from Europe while Dimmesdale is a Puritan minister from England (61). Along the course of time after the act of adultery had happened, Hester could not hide the fact that she was bearing a child that was not of her husband, but from another man. She never reveals that this man is in fact Arthur Dimmesdale, and so only she receives the punishment of prison. Although it is Hester who receives the condemnation and punishment from the townspeople and officials, Dimmesdale is also punished by his conscience as he lives his life with the secret burden hanging between him and Hester.
His decision to not expose himself worsened his suffering as Roger Chillingworth made his life miserable. Chillingworth figured out that Dimmesdale was Hester’s lover and vowed for revenge. Dimmesdale went into Chillingworth’s care and his mental and physical condition worsened. Chillingworth started to resent and torture Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale thought he could take all of the guilt but it is started to get to his head and he didn’t realize the enemy he
Although perceived as two utterly different men, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth share some remarkable similarities. Lying is one of these connections, as both men lie to one another concerning their connections to Hester and she conceals the secrets of their connections to her as well. Inquisitive as to whom Hester loved Chillingworth questions her, and she replies, “That thou shalt never know!” (86), so Chillingworth says to Hester “Breathe not, to any human soul, that thou dost ever call me husband!” (88), and she replies, “I will keep thy secret, as I have this” (88). Even though one would suppose both men to have significant roles in Hester’s life, they distance themselves and pretend as
One of the main themes in The Scarlet Letter is that of the secret. The plot of the book is centered on Hester Prynne’s secret sin of adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne draws striking parallelism between secrets held and the physical and mental states of those who hold them. The Scarlet Letter demonstrates that a secret or feeling kept within slowly engulfs and destroys the soul such as Dimmesdale’s sin of hypocrisy and Chillingworth’s sin of vengeance, while a secret made public, such as Prynne’s adultery, can allow a soul to recover and even strengthen.
All in all, in order for the revelation of the truth in the society depicted in The Scarlet Letter, there exists an expectation of privacy in order to shroud those who reveal the truth from society. The reason for this is so that the truth cannot be revealed in its entirety to the society which could cause enlightenment to all. The enlightenment of all people in society, especially in a religious society such as this one could lead to the destruction of the religious influence over society. Thus, because Hester and Dimmesdale are shown to have gone against the religious values of society and have thus become enlightened, the truths they hold must only be revealed in a private setting in order to avoid complete enlightenment of society.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Mr. Dimmesdale’s greatest fear is that the townspeople will find out about his sin of adultery with Hester Prynne. Mr. Dimmesdale fears that his soul could not take the shame of such a disclosure, as he is an important moral figure in society. However, in not confessing his sin to the public, he suffers through the guilt of his sin, a pain which is exacerbated by the tortures of Roger Chillingworth. Though he consistently chooses guilt over shame, Mr. Dimmesdale goes through a much more painful experience than Hester, who endured the public shame of the scarlet letter. Mr. Dimmesdale’s guilt is much more damaging to his soul than any shame that he might have endured.