Arthur Dimmesdale's Suffering

Saying that someone is suffering is a very subjective statement. To decide if someone is suffering there must be evidence showing the person is physically and/or mentally tormented by something. In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the three main characters, Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale all suffer in their own way. Hawthorne makes Hester suffer the public punishment and humiliation that followed after her pregnancy with an illegitimate child was revealed. Chillingworth suffers because he gives himself over to the devil and must feed off of the suffering of another but will die without it. Dimmesdale suffers from the guilt of never admitting that he is Pearl’s father. Although all of the main characters in the novel suffer, Arthur Dimmesdale is the one who endures the most suffering.
At the beginning of the novel Hester is on the scaffold where she is being publicly condemned for her sin. All of the townspeople have gathered around and the clergymen are on a balcony near the scaffold. The townspeople and the reverend continuously demand to know the name of the father of the baby. Dimmesdale is pushed by the other clergymen to convince Hester to give up the father’s identity. Hester remains strong and

Dimmesdale holds in his guilt from not confessing him being the baby’s father. For seven years he endures suffering mentally as his guilt begins to break down his mind. He also suffers physically as he becomes sick from guilt and whipping and starving himself as a way to repent. When Dimmesdale is about to die he finally publicly confesses to the sin and is able to be Pearl’s father and then dies and doesn’t suffer anymore. Dimmesdale is the character who suffers the most because for seven years he both mentally and physically breaks down from guilt until his death after his acknowledgment of the