Compare And Contrast Hester And Dimmesdale

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel, based in the Puritan era, about Hester Prynne who commits an act of adultery and has a baby, but the father is unknown. The father is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Both Hester and Dimmesdale face their sin daily. They are differences in how they go about their sin but there are also similarities. The Puritans also want sin expelled from their community. There are also many different ways they deal with their sin, but the sin can lead to personal growth, sympathy, and understanding of others. Throughout the book, Hester and Dimmesdale face their sin in different ways that lead to personal growth and an increase in good qualities.

Reverend Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne have many differences when facing their sinfulness on a daily basis. Some of these differences include, Dimmesdale not telling his sin, but the whole community knows about Hester’s. Dimmesdale knows that if anyone finds out about his sin then he will be shunned and shamed, just like Hester. His sin was terrible and clearly went against his religion, so him being a priest makes it worse. He will fall from his high

priestly role. This are a few reasons why he will not give his sin away. Hester’s sin is already given away because she has to birth the baby, which is a dead giveaway. Hester is given a mark of shame that she has to wear through her life. She put up with this shaming and shunning for seven years, while no one knew that Dimmesdale was the father of Pearl. Hester, even though she is being shamed, still gives to the poor and did everything that a good religious person was expected to do, but the people she gave to bit the hand that fed them. She is being judged because of her act of adultery but the people do not see her acts of kindness, or even see her as a person with a good heart. Dimmesdale struggles through the day when facing his sin because he knows that he cannot continue his priestly duties with this mortal sin on his soul, but he does because he knows that the people will run him out of town if they know about it. Hester, on the other hand, gets used to facing her sin on a daily basis, she is still shunned, but she has learned, after so long, to put it off and not let it affect her. Although both Hester and Dimmesdale face different scenarios in everyday life they do share some similarities. They both faced penance; Hester is forced into penance, but Dimmesdale put himself into penance every day. Dimmesdale and Hester face their sins in different ways on a daily basis.
In the Puritan age, the people viewed sin a threat to the community, they also thought that sin should be expelled.

The elders were going to dish out a horrible punishment to Hester, instead, the gave her the scarlet letter to wear upon her bosom. This was still a terrible punishment; it brought great shame on Hester for seven years, but the worst part is that little Pearl knows nothing about her father and what her mother did until the end of the book when Hester tells Pearl in the forest that Dimmesdale is her father. Hester is almost forced to leave the community because of the act of adultery that she and Dimmesdale committed. If Dimmesdale would have told the community of his sin, then he would have been removed from the priesthood, as well as the community. The elders show no mercy when it comes to removing sin in their

community.
One way to deal with sin is isolating and rejecting it. Hester wore the scarlet letter on her bosom as punishment, but she is isolated from the community and is not accepted, she is also a reject. By being rejected and isolated Hester is left with time to deal with her sin and overcome it. Dimmesdale isolates himself during his penance to overcome his sin. He mentally beats up himself up to overcome his sin. They both overcome the sin by meeting together and professing their love for each other in the forest. They devise a plan to run away to Europe after Dimmesdale finally tells the people about his sin and his love for Hester and Pearl. When someone sins, isolating them is the best way for the person to learn their lesson. Isolation can change a person and then they hopefully learn not to commit that sin again. Rejecting sin is also another way to stay away from sin.
Hester and Dimmesdale are both in a state of sin, but this leads to growth, sympathy, and understanding others. Hester grows as a person; she starts to help the poor and has a different view of people. She sees the change in Roger Chillingworth; she watches him go from good to bad, while he is inspecting Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale grows as a person by helping in the Church more than he did before because he knows he has done wrong. They both show sympathy for the people. Hester shows sympathy for Pearl and Chillingworth. She inspects Chillingworth and shows sympathy because she knows that he has taken a turn for the worst.
Arthur Dimmesdale does not show much sympathy in the book, but as a priest, it is assumed that he is sympathetic to his parishioners. They both show understanding of each other. Hester understands Dimmesdale situation and comes up with the idea that they should run off together. At first, Dimmesdale does not really understand Hester’s situation with Pearl and the shaming that she has gone through, but towards the end, he is on the scaffold with Pearl and Hester and realizes that Pearl is a part of him, this is where he finally understands what he put Hester through. These qualities are compatible with a state of purity. To be pure, a person needs the have the qualities of personal growth, sympathy, and understanding of others. Hester and Dimmesdale are in sin but overcome it and grow as people.
In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, people grow personally and have an increase in good qualities when facing sin; Hester and Dimmesdale both go through this process. Throughout the book, they overcome their sin in different ways, but they are in different situations. The community knows of Hester’s sin, while they do not know of Dimmesdale’s. Hester was also close to being banished from the community for her sin by the Puritan elders. Hester learns to ignore her shame and grows personally, while Dimmesdale does not have to face shame because he has not told the community of his sin yet. Everyone faces sin on a daily basis; Hawthorne shows how two people overcome their sin in the Puritan era.