The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is set in a 1600’s, religious town in Massachusetts. Due to the strict religious code of this town, Reverend Dimmesdale, the well-respected priest in the town, can not find the courage to reveal his adultery to the townspeople. Roger Chillingworth is angry about Hester and Dimmesdale’s affair and seeks to take revenge on the Reverend. Although they suffer the effects of different sins, they both struggle to find absolution for their sins. Hawthorne's diction and internal conflict show that no matter the negative effects of one sins one can still find redemption in oneself and the world around them. Revenge changes Chillingworth's physical and mental attributes, but he still finds redemption …show more content…
His committed adultery deteriorated his physical appearance and sickens him. Additionally, Dimmesdale begins to starve and beat himself, hoping that punishment will make him feel better or give him the courage to admit to his sins; however, he “could not purify” himself (141). He becomes more ascetic to redeem his sins but still finds the guilt manifesting in his heart. By including this allusion, Hawthorne shows that Dimmesdale wants to expose his sins, but does not have the bravery to do it. This changes at the Election Day Sermon when Reverend Dimmesdale calls to Hester and Pearl to stand on the platform together as a family. Hathorne sets this scene on the “pedestal of shame” where Hester first took the “agony” of Dimmesdale as well as her own to shelter her lover's reputation from the harsh opinions of the townspeople (67, 66). Seven years later, the pedestal is no longer the symbol of agony, but it has a “tender” and “slightly triumphant” aura to it (147). This parallels the change in Reverend Dimmesdale, as seven years ago he “hath not the courage” to admit to his sin and love for Hester on his own, while now he gladly reveals to all the townspeople that it is he who committed adultery with Hester so long ago (65). By his confession, Dimmesdale frees himself from the bonds of guilt that plagued him in the past and allowed …show more content…
This shows the people in the 1600’s who were generally more religious than people are now that they may receive grace for their sins if they show that they deserve redemption. Reverend Dimmesdale admitting to his sins and Chillingworth giving Pearl his fortune sets an example for parishioners in the New World that the Lord is equally merciful to all sinners. Though the average person's sins are not as grave as those of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, anyone can find
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...
The town is all out to witness the punishment of Hester Prynne some of the women are suggesting other punishments and the women are telling us about Hester and Dimmesdale. People say," said another, "that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation." (Page 49) Reverend Dimmesdale is seen as a godly man. A man who does not commit sin and in his own mind at this point he feels fine and does not have any guilt. Dimmesdale at this point in the novel is seen as godly and throughout the novel is seen as godly even at the end after the last scaffold scene. Consequently enough, Dimmesdale is trying to convince Hester to reveal the man who has sinned along with her , so the man can be relieved of his guilt, some what ironic because he is the man who has sinned along side with her. "What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin? Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph over the evil within thee and the sorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him--who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself--the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips!" (Page 65) This is the first scaffold scene Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is not showing any signs of guilt at this point, he is still fairly the same and has not began to inflict punishment on himself or so it appears. Dimmesdale in the first scaffold scene seems fairly normal and has not begun to transform himself but by the next time we see him at the scaffold he is taken a turn for the worst.
Through the characters Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, Hawthorne reveals the true nature of Puritan society through parallels among the three. All three’s hidden evil is masked by each of their perfect appearances. Chillingworth exhibited the Puritan’s benefit of the doubt they received because of their relation to religion, while Dimmesdale presented the fact that corruption fuels the association with religion and as corruption within someone or something increases, so does a person or people’s betterment.
Hester and Dimmesdale’s affair goes undiscovered until Hester is pregnant and bears a child without having her husband present. As her punishment, Hester is forced to stand on the scaffold in the middle of the market place, with an A on her chest. Dimmesdale has not told a single person that he is the adulterer. He sits in the balcony with the Governor, a judge, a general, and the rest of the ministers, watching the display, without any expression or emotion. Hester and Pearl go to the Governor’s home to deliver a pair of gloves, but more importantly to inquire about the possibility of the government taking away her child. Also there with Governor Bellingham are Pastor Wilson, Reverend Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. After Mr. Wilson asks Pearl a few questions, the Governor decides that Hester is unfit as a mother and that the child would be better off in the hands of the church. Hester begs Dimmesdale, whom she says knows everything about her and has charge of her soul, to speak for her. Therefore, he does, convincing the Governor to let Hester keep Pearl. This is Dimmesdale’s first step to becoming the moral blossom. Late at night, a few years after the previous incident, Dimmesdale takes a walk through the town. He climbs onto the scaffold and pretends to confess; though there is no one out at this time at night. Hester and Pearl, on their way home, pass Dimmesdale on the scaffold. Dimmesdale calls out to them and they join him, standing hand in hand in the darkness. Dimmesdale has begun the road to confession by acknowledging Hester and Pearl and by acting out confession. Now he feels guiltier than ever.
In choosing to contain his deep sin as a secret, Mr. Dimmesdale suffered from a festering guilt that plagued him until his death. After Hester was sentenced with the punishment for her act of adultery, Mr. Dimmesdale remained silent in refusal to confess to his inclusion in the sin. Over time, feelings of remorse gnawed at Mr. Dimmesdale’s conscience and left him in a self loathing state for his own hypocrisy. Dimmesdale felt excessive guilt in allowing Hester to undergo the entirety of the ridicule and punishment alone while he maintained a positioned of respected and idolized authority, yet could not find it in his heart to expose the sin. Looking upon his situation with the Puritan perspective, Mr. Dimmesdale “…loved the truth and loathed the lie, as few men ever did. Therefore above all things else, he loathed his miserable self” (136). Mr. Dimmesdale felt he was living a lie for he, the very man who preached to the community about living a pure life, was living one tainted with...
Roger Chillingworth’s main internal conflict was his personal revenge towards Arthur Dimmesdale. Roger is a dynamic character who changes from being a caring and mindful doctor to a dark creature enveloped in retaliation. His character possesses a clear example of the result when a person chooses sin by letting his vengeance get the better of him. For example, Roger constantly asks Hester to tell him who has caused her punishment. As Roger visits Hester at the prison, he is determined to find out who Hester’s lover was, “...few things hidden from the man, who devotes himself earnestly and unreservedly to the solution of mystery” (64).
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
While it is evident Dimmesdale has great rhetorical skills, Hester Prynne’s exquisite play on words is more subtle but just as important in the development of their personalities. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is artfully mastered in language, which is important as a Puritan Minister. Many people said [Dimmesdale’s preaching] affected them like the speech of an angel and the narrator practically gives him “the gift of tongues” (Milliman 1). He appeases the crowd by saying to Hester Prynne, “[see] the accountability under which I labor” which is meant to shame her for the adultery she has committed but also “secretly” confesses his equal participation in her sin (1). His audience, the people of Boston, perceives accountability as responsibility of what a minister must relay to his congregation and not as the truth of his wrong doing (1). Hester Prynne also uses a double entendre as she tells Dimmesdale to speak for her when Wilson and Bellingham try to remove Pearl from her care. The men think she is merely asking her minister for support, not asking of her lover to own up to the responsibility of their child. This cry for help reminds Dimmesdale that his “sympathies...
Dimmesdale tells Hester “What can thy silence do for him, as it were—to add hypocrisy to sin?” (Hawthorne 63). Dimmesdale pushes Hester to reveal her lover (Himself) because he is too weak to do it himself. He “loves” Hester, but doesn’t have the guts to share her burden with her. He understands the turmoil of keeping his secret, but is too attached to his position as minister to admit it. Dimmesdale’s description of his “confessions” in chapter 11 also serve to further exemplify his hypocritical character. He continually calls himself “vile” and a sinner, but he knows that he will only receive more adoration from the crowd. Instead of outright saying that he committed adultery with Hester, he knowingly feeds the audience, boosting his popularity. Again at the scaffold scene his hypocrisy is obvious. He cowers both when he sees a man and when Pearl asks him “wilt thou stand here with mother and me, to-morrow noontide?” (Hawthorne 139). His inability to release in any form his transgression shows whilst playing the preacher role shows is cowardice and
The world of Puritan New England, like the world of today, was filled with many evil influences. Many people were able to withstand temptation, but some fell victim to the dark side. Such offences against God, in thought, word, deed, desire or neglect, are what we define as sin (Gerber 14).
The audience experiences Roger Chillingworth in a dramatic yet critical way to justify change and retribution in one character as the consequence of cloaking deep sin and secrets. When first introduced in the story, the narrator refers to Chillingworth as “known as a man of skill” (97) through the point of view of the people in the Puritan town of Salem. He is brought into the story when the town was in a time of need of a physician to help the sickly Reverend Dimmesdale; his arrival is described as an “opportune arrival” because God sent a “providential hand” to save the Reverend. Society views Chillingworth as though as “heaven had wrought an absolute miracle” (97). The narrator feels when Chillingworth arrives in Salem he is good and has no intention of harm of others. Perhaps if the crime of the story had not been committed he would have less sin and fewer devils like features. Although this view of Chillingworth changes quickly, it presents the thought of how Chillingworth is before sin destroys him. Quickly after Chillingworth discovers Dimmesdale’s secret, his features and his character begin to change. The narrator’s attitude changes drastically towards the character from altering his ideas of the kind and intelligent persona to an evil being by using phrases such as “haunted by Satan himself” (101). The narrator portrays the people of the town believing Chillingworth is taking over the ministers soul in the statement “the gloom and terror in the depths of the poor minister’s eyes” (102). Throughout the book, Chillingworth ages exceedingly and rapidly. At the very end of the story, the narrator reveals another change in Chillingworth’s character; he searches for redemption by leaving Pearl a fortune a “very considerable amount of property” (203). By doing this, it shows
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross once said, “Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.” This quote truly captures Dimmesdale’s death and journey to death, it is guilt that drives him to the grave and it accompanies him throughout all five grieving stages. Dimmesdale is one of many characters in The Scarlet Letter that is faced with problems both personally and spiritually. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a romantic novel about a young woman, Hester Prynne, who is permanently marked with her sin by a scarlet A she must bare on her chest and also by her daughter Pearl. Hester committed adultery with the young minister of Boston, Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester, and her beloved child Pearl, learn to over come the A and change the meaning of it from adulterer to able, while they are changing the way society views them, Dimmesdale is withering away under the “care” of Rodger Chillingworth, Hester’s past husband. Chillingworth knows about the sin and seeks revenge on Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale is helpless and in a downward spiral. He let the sin become who he is, even though the towns people don’t know of his adultery until his dying breath. The Scarlet Letter is a story about overcoming the darkness that hangs above you and stepping out of the sin or gloom that controls you. For characters like Hester this is a fairly easy thing to handle, but on the flip side characters like Dimmesdale struggle and can not seem to escape their heinous acts and don’t find peace of mind until they die. The Scarlet Letter mainly focuses on the process of overcoming these troubling times and how each individual character handles the pressure, stress, and guilt that come along with it differently. Arthur Dimmesdale is a lost soul after his sin, he expe...
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, there are many moral and social themes develped throughout the novel. Each theme is very important to the overall effect of the novel. In essence, The Scarlet Letter is a story of sin, punishment and the importance of truth. One theme which plays a big role in The Scarlet Letter is that of sin and its effects. Throughout the novel there were many sins committed by various characters. The effects of these sins are different in each character and every character was punished in a unique way. Two characters were perfect examples of this theme in the novel. Hester Prynne and The Reverend Dimmesdale best demonstrated the theme of the effects of sin.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of the main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Sin strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into a demon.
To begin with, one of the main reasons Dimmesdale does not confess to his sin is because he does not want to lose his position as minister. The text says “Or,-can we not suppose it? -guilty as they may be, retaining, nevertheless, a zeal for God’s glory and man’s welfare, they shrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view