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Character analysis of Dimmesdale
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Thien Tran Mrs. Brown English Honors: Literature and Composition November 28 2017 Dimmesdale: The man with the hand over his hard In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, many characters go through the great transformation. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale - a key character of the plot - is one of them. Throughout the story, Dimmesdale undergoes his own transformation from a weak and cowardly man who refuses to take responsibility for his actions to a person who admits his sins and finally finds his happiness. The story took place from 1642 to 1647, the time when Puritan society in Massachusset believed strongly in the concept of living a perfect life. Hence, such sin like adultery was always considered a mortal sin. The awkwardness came into
the story when Dimmesdale - a religious leader of the Puritans - commits the sin himself. His lover, Hester Prynne, is publicly punished, humiliated, and judged in the middle of the marketplace. At this stage, Dimmesdale is still in denial of his sin: he let her be punished alone. At the scaffold, playing his role as a “God fearing” minister, he tells her: “Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he 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” (Hawthorne, 65). Ironically, Dimmesdale was trying to get Hester to reveal the name of her secret lover, when he himself is not strong enough to admit it. Getting away with sin, Dimmesdale does not show any sense of guilt. What he said to her, however, would turn out to be true as the story goes on.
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...
Cowardice creates self-destructive lies with which an individual must conceal themselves to delay the inevitable ramifications of their wickedness. The Bible states, “the cowardly…sexually immoral…idolaters and all liars [will] be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur” (NIV Revelations 21:8). Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, depicted a holy minister who hypocritically hid within cowardice despite the commands of the Biblical teaching in which he preached. Through reverend Arthur Dimmesdale’s actions and motivations, cowardice was exemplified in order to prove the minister’s regret of adultery with a woman who was less significant to him than Hawthorne’s readers were led to believe. Arthur Dimmesdale’s weakness in hiding behind
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are many characters that transform; one of them is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale committed a great sin of the puritan society, he slept with another mans wife and Hester Prynne became pregnant. Hester was punished for her sin but Arthur Dimmesdale had not admitted to it, so he lives with this guilt and it is much worst for him because he is a puritan minister. Dimmesdale inflicts punishment upon himself because of his adulterated sin. Dimmesdale transforms throughout the novel always in the same place "The Scaffold."
In the story of the Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale possesses more guilt and fear than any other character portrayed in this fascinating book by Nathaniel Hawthorne. There are many examples that make this theory evident: by him putting off his confession about his act of passion, it results in a woman being punished and set apart from the rest of civilization, all while dealing with his moral obligations as a pastor and finally comparing him to the other major male character within the story. Even with his abundant knowledge of what is right and wrong, Dimmesdale attempts to rationalize his mistakes and reason to himself throughout the story that what he is doing is best for everyone. Is this only a sign of fear or hypocrisy due to a lack of integrity?
Dimmesdale, the novel’s hero, was described as an esteemed minister in Puritan era Boston. The next two steps are the call to adventure and refusal of the call. Dimmesdale’s call came from Hester Prynne on the scaffold in the first scene, but he would not join her there, thus refusing the call. The final step in the ordinary world is meeting the mentor. This is the first point where The Scarlet Letter diverges from Campbell’s outline. Whereas Campbell calls the mentor an aide and guide to the hero, Dimmesdale’s mentor was Roger Chillingworth, an evil doctor who had no intent to aide or guide
The Scarlet Letter involves many characters that go through several changes during the course of the story. In particular, the young minister Dimmesdale, who commits adultery with Hester, greatly changes. He is the moral blossom of the book, the character that makes the most progress for the better. It is true that Dimmesdale, being a minister, should be the role model of the townspeople. He is the last person who should commit such an awful crime and lie about it, but in the end, he confesses to the town. Besides, everybody, including ministers, sin, and the fact that he confesses illustrates his courage and morality.
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.
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
"Life is hard, but accepting that fact makes it easier." This common phrase clearly states a harsh fact that Rev. Dimmesdale, a character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, had to face. In this story of deception and adultery set in the Puritan era, Hawthorne introduces Dimmesdale as a weak and cowardly man who refuses to take responsibility for his actions. The Rev. Dimmesdale is a transitional character in that he is, at the beginning of the novel, outwardly good but inwardly deceitful and by the end of the novel he becomes both outwardly and inwardly truthful.
In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes imagery to convey that Dimmesdale can represent Puritan Society rather than the round character that can be seen on the surface level. This is seen through the imagery and symbolism of hypocrisy, Dimmesdale as a Christ figure, and the scarlet letter.
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).
... him feeble. In the end, he frees himself from his guilt by admitting to everyone his sin. He crumbles under the anxiety of holding his secret inwards revealing Dimmesdale to be a rather weak male protagonist. He also is not strong enough support Hester, to show love towards Hester, or to take his own burden of sin on himself, although he does realize how wrong he is. His inability to outwardly show his sin like Hester proves Hester to be the stronger one which supports the idea that Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a feminist composition.
The first reason Dimmesdale is the best example of redemption in The Scarlet Letter has to do with his original sin and the guilt it caused him. In order for redemption to take place, there must be an initial sin. Dimmesdale committed adultery, which is viewed as a horrible crime in The