Arthur Dimmesdale Guilt Essay

1335 Words3 Pages

Guilt and Pain can Kill a Person

Arthur Dimmesdale is a fictional character written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 1850’s from the book, “The Scarlet Letter.” Arthur Dimmesdale went through great lengths of guilt and suffering throughout the book. He is a Puritan minister who had a child named Pearl, whose mother was Hester Prynne. They hide their relationship together in the years of Pearl growing up. Arthur Dimmesdale was the only Puritan out of four main characters in The Scarlet Letter. Dimmesdale knows that he has sinned in the very beginning of the novel, but kept all his feelings inside, letting the guilt overwhelm him until the end. When he committed adultery, he knew that what he did was wrong, but at the time he had only put …show more content…

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 …show more content…

The life of secrecy wasn 't as easy as Dimmesdale had thought it would be because he is now very ill from all the stress by keeping it inside. His sickness nonetheless, is not physically, but mentally. Dimmesdale was prescribed medication to keep himself from shutting down. He is still fully committed to staying with Hester and their daughter, Pearl, even if their relationship cannot move any further at the time being because Hester is still making a good name for herself again. The medicine however, only works a little bit or for a small amount of time because of how much guilt Dimmesdale is giving himself from not confessing. Arthur Dimmesdale lives with the pain growing and growing without confessing, wanting to please Hester, keep his promise to her and make sure she gets treated the way she is supposed to from all the drudgery she has done to remake her life new. Dimmesdale, at the time has his concentration on keeping other people happy at his time of life to make up for the sin he has done that he did not focus on keeping himself happy and neither did anyone else. Arthur Dimmesdale did not have the opportunity to confess his sins to the town because Hester and he agreed to keep that part of their life a secret from people, not wanting to have an even higher punishment. After more and more time passes on, Dimmesdale continues his ministry following his new emotional path

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