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Religion in 19th century America and its effects on literature
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Hypocrisy Of The Scarlet Letter
Hypocrisy has been everywhere in The Scarlet Letter. People of Hester, and the community that they lived in, were immersed in hypocrisy. Hawthorne was not restrained in his interpretation of the horrible sin of hypocrisy; he wanted be certain to see the sin at job , in the same moment, equivalents can be pinched between the people in The Scarlet Letter and of present civilization.
The first person, Hester Prynne, is embarrassed of infidelity. She evidently loves Dimmesdale, thus she didn’t say anything for seven years Dimmesdale is leisurely punished. The affection she experienced was so powerful that it made her removed sacred pledges. Dimmesdale is persistently harmed by his internal monster of guilt that
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Hawthorne proposed his title to have representative meaning, Dimmesdale means blurred or not very bright. Arthur could be bright for example in the theology, however when it comes to hypocrisy, he is dumb. Dimmesdale says in the beginning of the novel “What can thy silence do for him, except to tempt him yea, compel him, as it were to add hypocrisy to sin?”(Dimmesdale 47). He knows what would happen to him if he sustains his sin when he is alone, but he is too pathetic at this point in the novel to acknowledge it. The wall-hangings of biblical maturity, which are seen in Arthur’s room, are deceitful. Those things theoretically should help him compensate for his sins in the way to make him feel embarrassed, however he doesn 't fell better. Arthur is thinking every week on how bad sin can be, and how he’s the poorest sinner of the all people around him. These concessions made him more of a hypocrite. Dimmesdale realizes how the worshippers will understand these confessions, he isn’t eyeless to their looks of respect. Dimmesdale appreciates being seen as a saint, by realizing he is a strictly sinner. The years of punishments the minister got, are carried by his own responsibility. If the commitment to the society had prevented him from acknowledging his sin, he wouldn’t be tortured. His love of the society is comparable to Hester Prynne’s love of Pearl. Dimmesdale only loves his society adequately to preach in it
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...
A sinful nature is an aspect in man that makes him rebellious against God. Everyone has a sinful nature and it affects every part of us. Sin corrupts the human mind and has consequences for doing wrong in the eyes of the Lord. Every individual on Earth sins, and this is represented in the novel The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale to portray how different people cope with their sin and the consequences of that sin.
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.
People often keep secrets in an effort to hide their sins from others. This is a risky since secrets have a way of manifesting themselves externally, and thus, letting everyone know of their owner’s sins. Hidden sin is a prominent theme in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter. Names like Chillingworth and Dimmesdale let the reader know how, in reality, these characters are, before ever really encountering them. Characters whom the reader will encounter in this novel are going through some type of dilemma on the inside, which begins to show itself in the exterior of the particular individual. In The Scarlet Letter, two studious individuals, Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale, two of the main characters in the novel, each possess their own sins which begin to show themselves in their outermost features, each brought apon themselves for their own respective reasons.
The theme of hypocrisy is evident throughout The Scarlet Letter, as seen in Hawthorne’s characterization of society, Roger Chillingworth, and most prominently, Arthur Dimmesdale.
...y, Dimmesdale suffered constantly from corporal afflictions as well as the internal conflict of coping with his actions. After the initial sin, Mr. Dimmesdale lived a life of endless struggle and underwent the most suffering throughout The Scarlet Letter. Dimmesdale allowed his life to become consumed with guilt and the quest to complete a suitable penance, which brought him sorrow, self-hatred, and the demise of his body and spirit. The outward influence of society played a key role in Arthur’s unvarying anguish by providing him with a constant reminder of his sin and hypocrisy and adding to the growing guilt and shame he kept bottled within him. Combinations of his mental, physical, and emotional struggles ultimately lead Mr. Dimmesdale to his untimely death. In the end, the suffering became too great to bear and Mr. Dimmesdale’s was forced him to succumb to it.
The Scarlet Letter is full of many psychological and moral aspects, and most of them relate very well to things that are going on right now in the world. They all go hand in hand meaning that the aspects that were explained in The Scarlet Letter, can also be explained in the same way as they can be explained now. Although times were very different in the times where The Scarlet Letter took place, they are all relevant for what people have to say about certain things in today's world. The moral aspects of the Scarlet Letter are almost the same as moral aspects of today.
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.
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, contains many profound characters. The townspeople intrigue the reader because they gradually evolve throughout the book, as would any solitary character. In the beginning of the novel, they are generally rigid and judgmental towards Hester, because she has committed adultery. Throughout the novel, they slowly allow Hester and her daughter into their community, but still look at them with suspicion and doubt. Finally, in the end of The Scarlet Letter, the town forgives her of her sin, and she cautiously finds her place in society. Hawthorne uses the strict Puritan townspeople as a criterion by which all societies can be measured. The townspeople, as with any individual character, possess a certain depth that develops with knowledge.
4. The Scarlet Letter was written and published in 1850. The novel was a product of the Transcendentalist and Romantic period.
Despite the tragic ending of Dimmesdale’s life, Hawthorne demonstrates his perspectives on repentance, that doing so yields a free and strong-minded character. Because Dimmesdale neglected to make amends for his sins, he deteriorated on the inside and outside. In his attempts to atone, he still did not truly achieve penitence in the right way and continued to become unstable and weak. Before Dimmesdale’s last breath, he finally repented in front of his society, liberating himself from the evils of Chillingworth and his own self destruction. Upon that scaffold in his last moment, Dimmesdale did the most difficult task he had ever done, incriminate himself with Hester Prynne, the public symbol of ignominy in the Puritan community.
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.
The war that is going on inside Arthur Dimmesdale is one of appearance vs. reality. Dimmesdale in the end conquers his tribulations and admits to his hypocritical ways. While the town’s people viewed him as their incorruptible, revered and strong pastor they came to realize that he was corrupt, dishonest, and weak.
The Scarlet Letter is a fictional novel that begins with an introductory passage titled ‘The Custom-House’. This passage gives a historical background of the novel and conveys the narrator’s purpose for writing about the legend of Hester Prynne even though the narrator envisions his ancestors criticizing him and calling him a “degenerate” because his career was not “glorifying God”, which is very typical of the strict, moralistic Puritans. Also, although Hawthorne is a Romantic writer, he incorporates properties of Realism into his novel by not idealizing the characters and by representing them in a more authentic manner. He does this by using very formal dialogue common to the harsh Puritan society of the seventeenth century and reflecting their ideals through this dialogue. The Puritans held somewhat similar views as the Transcendentalists in that they believed in the unity of God and the world and saw signs and symbols in human events, such as when the citizens related the meteo...