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Literary analysis the scarlet letter
Character development in the scarlet letter pdf by nathaniel hawthorne
Character analysis of scarlet letter by nathaniel hawthorne
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On September 1st, I have been given the assignment to assess the death of Arthur Dimmesdale, one of the main characters in Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, taking place in Boston, Massachusetts around the mid-1700s. Dimmesdale, an eloquent and young minister, has committed adultery with a young married woman named Hester. While Hester undergoes punishment and humiliation as she conceives Dimmesdale’s daughter, Pearl, Dimmesdale keeps his relationship to them a secret and constantly feels guilty about doing so. For penance and to relieve his sorrow, Dimmesdale tortures himself physically and mentally. Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, figures out Dimmesdale’s secret and vengefully torments him after becoming his physician as a disguise. Towards the end of the story, Dimmesdale suddenly collapses and dies on a scaffold after publicly revealing a letter “A” etched into his chest and confessing the adultery he had committed seven years prior. As an expert forensic analyst in American …show more content…
literature novels, it is my obligation to determine the most likely cause of death out of the three perspectives given by Hawthorne. With sufficient and clear reasoning and evidence, further evaluation is provided for the following possibilities of Dimmesdale’s death: consequence from mental illness, spiritual separation, and/or murder by poison through Chillingworth’s medicinal herbs. Consequence from Mental Illness It is probable for Dimmesdale to have suffered a mental illness severe enough to kill himself, as a result of his prolonged remorse.
One appropriate illness he suffers from is major depression, which according to WebMD’s “Clinical Depression” article, is a “constant sense of hopelessness and despair… [Occurring] once or several times in a lifetime. (WebMD 1). The causes to major depression for men are by genes, brain chemistry/hormones, and stress, as stated in the National Institution of Mental Health article, “Men and Depression” (NIMH n/a). In this case, stress was the cause to Dimmesdale’s illness, as he has been conflicted with his hypocrisy and the courage to reveal his sin. This stressful situation bothers Dimmesdale to the point of condemning himself in his sermons, which his listeners deny in disbelief, and continue to admire him. Thus leading to more stress and the further deterioration of his mental health, Dimmesdale “loathed his miserable self.” (Hawthorne
133). Furthermore, Dimmesdale’s actions is alike with the symptoms of major depression. An evident symptom of depression that is seen in Dimmesdale through Hawthorne descriptions is: “aching/feeling physical pain.” (NIMH). Dimmesdale is noted to have clutched his chest multiple times, from possible aching from his heart, throughout the story. One specific example is when Chillingworth and Dimmesdale were arguing in their home, until Dimmesdale was “gripping hard at his breast as if afflicted with an importunate throb of pain.” (Hawthorne 121). Depression can become deadly, if the pain and feelings are unbearable enough to inflict self-harming and even suicide. (WebMD 2) In Dimmesdale’s situation, his unbearable feelings, full of guilt and worthlessness, convinced him that whipping himself to repent for his sins and purify him. He does this “…night after night, sometimes in utter darkness… he thus typified the constant introspection wherewith he tortured, but could not purify, himself” (Hawthorne 133) Spiritual Separation from God Additionally with depression, spiritual separation is also another possibility for death as it greatly influenced Dimmesdale’s deteriorating health. Provided with a report called “Sexual Misconduct in Plymouth Colony” from Lisa M. Lauria, in the 17th to 18th centuries in American Puritan colonies, the punishment of adultery was “the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death (with the exception of raped and/or married women).” (Lauria 5) This may have influenced Dimmesdale to conceal his sin, but also be conflicted with his mind and words as he was also a renown and virtuous minister. This can add greatly to the reason for the severity of Dimmesdale’s depression that slowly killed him. From an Interfaith Panel I went to, Mr. Gold, a history teacher taking part as the Jewish speaker of the panel, stated that “[in his religion] spiritual health can affect mental health, which may kill you.” In Thomas McCormick’s article of “Spirituality and Medicine”, a research in Pargament reveals that ill patients of involved in religious struggle may have deleterious effects upon health outcomes. These patients have a 19%-28% more risk of dying than those who are intact with their spiritual beliefs. (McCormick n/a) Conclusion: Murdered by Chillingworth Chillingworth was able to murder Dimmesdale by way of poison through medicinal knowledge. When Chillingworth was introduced to the story, he was described as a skilled physician, he also was “likewise familiar with whatever the savage people could teach, in respect to medicinal herbs and roots that grew in the forest.” (Hawthorne 65). The expanded knowledge and expertise of Chillingworth made him able of deciding which herbs have potential to poison Dimmesdale, specifically nightshade. According to a report from Wanda Jones called “Scopolamine Poisoning and the Death of Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter”, nightshade is considered very deadly and is known to have scopolamine, a poison which can cause hypnotic states. Chillingworth would have wanted to inflict these side effects in order to gain control of Dimmesdale and expose what he was hiding. (Jones 55) In addition, while Hester was on her way to see Chillingworth, she saw him picking up herbs near a spot where “deadly nightshade” was growing. (Hawthorne 263) This shows that Chillingworth had the opportunity to obtain the nightshade. As it is known to the readers, Chillingworth wanted to avenge himself against the father of his wife’s child. Once he figures out that Dimmesdale is his victim, he will have the dedication to obstruct whatever he can do to torment him until satisfied. This is justified when Hawthorne states that Chillingworth had a “quiet, depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now… which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy.” (209) After being suspicious of Dimmesdale, he figures out that he was Pearl’s father after secretly seeing a letter A etched into his chest, and he makes a “wild look of wonder, joy, and horror” (127) This is enough to prove that Chillingworth had a motive to murdering Dimmesdale. Lastly, Chillingworth had the opportunity to poison Dimmesdale as he was also his personal physician. It was advised of Dimmesdale’s friends that he should accept Chillingworth to take care of his poor health, said in p.111, “The elders, the deacons, the motherly dames, and the young and fair maidens of Mr. Dimmesdale’s flock, were alike importunate that he should make trial of the physician’s frankly offered skill.” When he accepts, Chillingworth spends as much time as he could with Dimmesdale. Hawthorne describes it as “every ebb and flow of the minister’s life might pass under the eye of his anxious and attached physician.” (115) Furthermore, they also “spend much time together… they took long walks on the sea-shore, or in the forest… often in his place of study or retirement.” (113) This gives Chillingworth numerous time slots to give Dimmesdale “medicine” in isolation or mentally torment him. Conclusion Though depression and spiritual separation are two big factors to Dimmesdale’s health, what provided the most evidence and reasoning was Chillingworth’s poison. After the previous assessments, Chillingworth is proven to have the means, motive, and opportunity to kill Dimmesdale. I believe that the severe mental illness and spiritual separation Dimmesdale suffered allowed him in his most vulnerable state for Chillingworth to take advantage of. In conclusion, I deduct that murder was the most likely cause of death, through poison given by Chillingworth.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, tells the story of a young adulteress named Hester Prynne and her bastard daughter, Pearl, as they endure their residence in a small town of the Massachusetts British settlement in the1600s. Pearl’s illegitimate birth is the result of the relationship between Hester Prynne and a minister of the Puritan church, Arthur Dimmesdale. Through public defamation and a perpetual embroidery of an “A” upon her dress, Hester is punished for her crime. Whereas, Arthur choses to suppress the secret over illuminating the truth and endures internal and self-inflicted punishment as consequence.
In the book The Scarlet Letter, the character Reverend Dimmesdale, a very religious man, committed adultery, which was a sin in the Puritan community. Of course, this sin could not be committed alone. His partner was Hester Prynne. Hester was caught with the sinning only because she had a child named Pearl. Dimmesdale was broken down by Roger Chillinsworth, Hester Prynne’s real husband, and by his own self-guilt. Dimmesdale would later confess his sin and die on the scaffold. Dimmesdale was well known by the community and was looked up to by many religious people. But underneath his religious mask he is actually the worst sinner of them all. His sin was one of the greatest sins in a Puritan community. The sin would eat him alive from the inside out causing him to become weaker and weaker, until he could not stand it anymore. In a last show of strength he announces his sin to the world, but dies soon afterwards. In the beginning Dimmesdale is a weak, reserved man. Because of his sin his health regresses more and more as the book goes on, yet he tries to hide his sin beneath a religious mask. By the end of the book he comes forth and tells the truth, but because he had hidden the sin for so long he is unable to survive. Dimmesdale also adds suspense to the novel to keep the reader more interested in what Reverend Dimmesdale is hiding and his hidden secrets. Therefore Dimmesdale’s sin is the key focus of the book to keep the reader interested. Dimmesdale tries to cover up his sin by preaching to the town and becoming more committed to his preachings, but this only makes him feel guiltier. In the beginning of the story, Dimmesdale is described by these words; “His eloquence and religious fervor had already given earnest of high eminence in his profession.”(Hawthorne,44). This proves that the people of the town looked up to him because he acted very religious and he was the last person that anyone expected to sin. This is the reason that it was so hard for him to come out and tell the people the truth. Dimmesdale often tried to tell the people in a roundabout way when he said “…though he (Dimmesdale) were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life.
Before Dimmesdale’s untimely death in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale committed the sins of adultery and lying. In order to keep his sins a secret, Dimmesdale spoke nothing of his involvement in the affair until it tore him apart from the inside out.When Dimmesdale tried to confess his sin to his congregation, they saw the confession as if it were part of his sermon. “He had spoken the very truth, and transformed it into the veriest falsehood”. (Hawthorne 171) Instead of correcting their assumption, Dimmesdale went along with it, once more hiding his sinfulness. When Dimmesdale finally confessed his sin openly...
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.
Dimmesdale considers the timing fortunate as it aligns with his Election Day sermon and feels that there could not be a more suitable way to end his career as a minister. He thinks to himself, “At least, they shall say of me, that I leave no public duty unperformed, nor ill performed!’” (Hawthorne 146). Up until the moment of his histrionic confession on the scaffold, Dimmesdale acts to maintain his respected reputation in the Puritan society. Even his final confession is a performance before the town. As analyzed by literary critic Terrence Martin, “...in keeping with the brilliant economy of The Scarlet Letter, the moment at which Dimmesdale commits himself consciously to deadly liberating sin becomes the moment at which he secretly wishes to cap his public life with a final burst of eloquence on the most important occasion the Puritan community can offer.” His death is his final act of hypocrisy, as he declares that he stands with them but leaves Hester and Pearl alone again to face society. His confession, like his silence, was a grandiose facade for an act of
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempted to expose the varying ways in which different people deal with lingering guilt from sins they have perpetrated. The contrasting characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale ideally exemplified the differences in thought and behavior people have for guilt. Although they were both guilty of committing the same crime, these two individuals differed in that one punished themselves with physical and mental torture and the other chose to continue on with their life, devoting it to those less fortunate than they.
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
Guilt, shame, and penitence are just a few of the emotions that are often associated with a great act of sin. Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale, a highly respected minister of a 17th century Puritan community, is true example of this as he was somehow affected by all of these emotions after committing adultery. Due to the seven years of torturous internal struggle that finally resulted in his untimely death, Mr. Dimmesdale is the character who suffered the most throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Mr. Dimmesdale’s ever present guilt and boundless penance cause him an ongoing mental struggle of remorse and his conscience as well as deep physical pain from deprivation and self inflicted wounds. The external influence of the members of his society
In further developing Dimmesdale's character, Hawthorne portrays him as a hypocrite. His outward demeanor deceives the villagers, appearing as a completely holy man. However, before the action of the novel begins, he stumbles into sin, by committing adultery with Hester Pryn...
First of all, Hawthorne parallels the hypocrisy of Dimmesdale to that of Puritan society. Hawthorne describes Dimmesdale as, "a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners," even though Dimmesdale is seen as the most holy man in the Puritan community. Puritan society was supposed to be a utopian society and do away with their English traditions. Similarly, as Dimmesdale was supposed to be holy, yet they both were hypocritical. Secondly, Dimmesdale portrays the Puritan society by not initially taking his place on the scaffold, "Ye have both been here before, but I was not with you… and we will stand all three together." The Puritans modeled Dimmesdale's hypocrisy, as they were supposed to be a "city on a hill" for the world to see while they ended up mixing up English tradition with their ideals. While Dimmesdale hid his sin at the first scaffold seen, so did the Puritans when they colonized America. The Puritans faults were not initially that obvious but as time grew on they appeared on their scaffold just as Dimmesdale does. Hawthorne writes about one of Dimmesdale's sermons that is, "addressed to the multitude a discourse on sin, in all its branches." In Dimmesdale's sermons, he spoke out against sin while at the same time he commits this sin, just as the Puritans committed sins that they condemned Dimmesdale's character models Puritan society in the way they treat religious persecution. The Puritans left England to flee from religious intolerance, but when they got to the colonies, they had no religious tolerance for people with different religious beliefs. Dimmesdale speaks out against adultery and commits it, the Puritans demand religious tolerance but refuse to give it.
Life is unpredictable, and through trial and error humanity learns how to respond to conflicts and learns how to benefit from mistakes. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a character who changes and gains knowledge from the trials he faces, but first he has to go through physical, spiritual, and emotional agony. In the midst of all the havoc, the young theologian is contaminated with evil but fortunately his character develops from fragile to powerful, and the transformation Dimmesdale undergoes contributes to the plot’s climax.
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, proves to be a sinner against man, against God and most importantly against himself because he has committed adultery with Hester Prynne, resulting in an illegitimate child, Pearl. His sinning against himself, for which he ultimately paid the
That man who Hester loves so deeply, Mr. Dimmesdale also undergoes major changes due the sin he bears. In the beginning of the book we see this man’s weakness and unwillingness to confess sin even as he begs Hester the person he committed his sin with to come forth with her other parties name (p56). As The Scarlet Letter progresses we see Dimmesdale become weaker physically and his religious speeches become even stronger so that his congregation begins to revere him. For a large part of the novel Dimmesdale has been on a downward spiral in terms of mental and physical health thanks to a so-called friend who was issued to take care of Mr. Dimmesdale, then because of a talk with Hester he is revitalized and given the power to do something, which he could not for seven long years. At the end of the novel Dimmesdale is finally able to recognize his family in public and confess his sin before all releasing the sin he held so long hidden in his heart (p218, 219).
“A bloody scourge…rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance.” (Hawthorne, 141) In the Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Minister Dimmesdale starved himself, whipped himself, and tortured himself to get rid of the guilt caused by his sin with Hester Prynne. Hawthorne describes the minister’s guilt as the evil that anchored him down and shows how Dimmesdale tortures himself but can never get rid of it. His guilt came from many things. First was his guilt for committing the crime with Hester Prynne. Second is his guilt for not being with her at the time that she was put upon the scaffold. Last was his guilt from not revealing himself to his own daughter and from having to stay out of her life due to fear of being shamed by the community. Hawthorne’s views on guilt and Dimmesdale are mostly that his guilt controlled his life completely until the very end when the power of the sin and guilt took over to the point where he couldn’t control himself.
However, Dimmesdale is negatively affected by not facing any consequences. Dimmesdale becomes incredibly diseased and is not in a correct state of mind as he was “suffering under [a] bodily disease”(Hawthorne 66) and “looked now more careworn and emaciated” (Hawthorne 103) than ever before. These descriptions prove that Dimmesdale’s health is deteriorating at a very fast rate and that he is a very depressed man at this point because of all the guilt piling up inside of him. In addition to his disease, Dimmesdale is adversely affected by the punishments that he puts on himself. He begins to flog himself and deprive himself of sleep and food as a way to get rid of his guilt.