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Character developement of the scarlet letter chapter 2
Character developement of the scarlet letter chapter 2
The scarlet letter character analysis essay
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Dimmesdale lives a lie and face a battle of inner conflict between his pride and his guilt throughout The Scarlet Letter. Lacking the courage to brings shame upon himself for his sin, Dimmesdale hides its. This, therefore, makes him a liar whose words are now tainted with deception, molding a far greater sin. This great sin destroys his ability to be a good father and has formed him to be a coward. Dimmesdale believes that if he conceals his sin that he can continue doing Gods work as a penance for his sins. It is Dimmesdale’s “concealed sins” of pride and false witness that exceeds the others because of the everlasting mark he leaves.
As the novel progresses, it is made apparent to the reader that Dimmesdale is tormented with a “black secret”
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that tortures his soul. This “black secret” is the sin of concealing his identity as Hester’s adultor. Dimmesdale believed by concealing this sin that he could be redeemed by “better service”. This “better service” is God’s work in his ministry. Though Dimmesdale thought that doing God’s work could redeem him, he soon learned the guilt of hiding this secret would create larger issues. Since he was a man of the ministry, he was looked upon as an honest and worthy man even though in secret he was not. He had put on this false persona to the people. It is through this falsehood that Dimmesdale commits sins that out weigh the one orginal sin he committed. Concealing this secret does not only affect Dimmesdale but his “little pearl” as well. Dimmesdale is pearl’s father yet he will not claim her in public as such. Pearl rejects him for this. She says to herself this,” But, here, in the sunny day, and among all the people,he knows us not; nor must we know him! A strange sad man is he, with his hand always over his heart”. This bitterness pearl has built against Dimmesdale affects their relationship. Dimmesdale, though he tried to be a father to pearl, did so in secret. Pearl is raised with out a father by Hester because of Dimmesdale’s consolidation. This realization took a toll on Dimmesdale even though he could have prevented his own suffering by swallowing his pride and stepping “down from a high place” in his precious ministry. Though Dimmesdale had this guilt for letting Hester take all the blame for their sin, he failed at taking his art in all of it.
His inner conflict did not solely rely on the war between his guilt, pride, and false witness, but also from the loneliness he brought upon himself. Dimmesdale felt sorry for himself and envied Hester for the fact she could wear her sin openly and freely, yet why could Dimmesdale not? Dimmesdale said himself “ happy are you, Hester, that you wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret! Dimmesdale’s sin did not have to burn in secret but he chose for it to out of his own righteous pride. His ride not only brought failure and guilt but also loneliness. His loneliness spring from no one getting to see him for what he really was. “After the torment of seven years’ cheat, to look into an eye that recognizes” him the “vilest of sinners” he shamed himself to be was the only time his loneliness had ceased to be. That day in the forest with Hester brought Dimmesdale comfort but he had only himself to blame for this misery. The truth is Dimmesdale tried to confess his sin. Though the times he tried to confess, it was not with much effort. The community would not believe him but instead claimed him to be “the saint on earth”. The irony of dimmesdales postion is almost hurmorous. He is disguised in lies therefore when he speaks the truth
it sounds like a lie or nonsense. Dimmesdale has wrapped himself in the thorns of his own sin. There is no escape from the reverb of his lies and he knows he has no one to blame but himself. Sin can not be measured by greatness but rather by how great the sin marks someone. Dimmesdale’s sin of adultery was not what made his mark so large but the ripple of that sin which lead to the others. The sin of Dimmesdale’s lies lead to his failure to be the father in which Pearl needed and he wanted to be. His sin of pride left Hester to bare the blame of his and her sin, branding her with the scarlet letter. Dimmesdale’s guilt and pain was caused from all the ripples, failure as Pearl’s father, Hester’s pain and shame, and the peoples inability to believe his confession. Though Chillingworth was vengeful and Hester was a cheater, Dimmesdale’s sins left far greater marks. His sin left pearl with the mark of not having a father. They left Hester without the man she loved and branded. His sins marked him and left him without his own life. These marks from his sin are far greater than those of just vengence and unfaithfulness. These marks are deeper. Dimmesdale’s sin was greatest because he left the greatest marks behind. Hawthorne said “Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait where by the worst may be inferred”, saying that the truth can set a soul free but you have to be able to say the truth and it be believed. Even after Dimmesdale’s death, people made excusses for him. The “concealed sin” of his pride and false witness were forever a mark that even the truth couldn’t surpass the damage. His marks were forever great.
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.
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, somewhat 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.
Arthur Dimmesdale proves himself to be an epitome of dishonesty. As he refuses to reveal his troubles to his physician, Roger Chillingworth, he is not properly brought back to full health. Chillingworth senses the pastor 's deep inflictions, and hints to the clergyman that he should disclose the true nature of his deteriorating health. By picking a black plant to put into medication, he suggests to Dimmesdale "I found them growing on a grave... of the dead man... They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime" (Hawthorne 123). The physician words this in a way that heavily implies his knowledge of the
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.
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...
The narrator of the Scarlet Letter uses devices such as hyperbole, paradox, satire, and allusion to describe Dimmesdale’s internal conflicts as they begin to reveal themselves within chapter eleven. To illustrate the narrator uses hyperbole in lines twenty-two to twenty-five using the town's people's belief of Dimmesdale being a pure, humble, and godly young man that is incapable of sin. The usage of hyperbole in one townsperson claimed, "The saint on earth! Alas, if he discerns such sinfulness in his own white soul, what horrid spectacle would he behold in thine or mine!” Emphasizes the strong, naive belief of the townsperson towards the sin Dimmesdale had committed. For they believed that it could not have been as bad as their own if not
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).
The forest scene is crucial in the narrative of The Scarlet Letter, and a proper understanding of what happens in the forest is necessary for any interpretation of Dimmesdale's last days of life and his final "confession." I will argue in this paper that the reading of the forest scene sketched above is mistaken; that in fact it is Arthur Dimmesdale and not Hester Prynne who is the "activating agent"(4) in the forest, increasing Dimmesdale's culpability for his most serious fall. Previous critics seem to think that Dimmesdale's much-vaunted skill as a speaker abandons him when he enters the forest with Hester, but I will show that Dimmesdale talks Hester into talking him into fleeing, and so Dimmesdale's gravest sin cannot be laid at Hester's feet at all.
Dimmesdale is one of the most intriguing characters in The Scarlet Letter. I think this because he demonstrates in this story that he is a coward, and that he is strong, yet not courageous.
After torturing himself for years on end, Dimmesdale still cannot find the inner-strength to reveal the sin that incessantly abuses his soul. During one lonely evening, Dimmesdale stands upon the local scaffold, attempting to feel the ignominy that Hester had so gallantly embraced. Unfortunately, he only has the courage to perform such a bold act in the secrecy of nightfall. While lost in his overwhelming thoughts, Dimmesdale, “[w]ithout any effort of his will, or power to restrain himself, shriek[s] aloud… an outcry that peal[s] through the night…” (136). Hence, Hawthorne’s supply of powerful actions renders Dimmesdale’s poor integrity in a potent manner. Dimmesdale’s agony-filled scream proves his weak state of mind, lack of personal restraint, and inner affliction. Furthermore, Hawthorne utilizes actions to describe Dimmesdale’s character progression. After making plans to run away to England with Pearl and Hester, Dimmesdale’s entire aura shifts to that of a more hopeful one. As Dimmesdale enters the New England Shore ready to deliver his final sermon, “[t]here [is] no feebleness of step… his frame [is] not bent, nor [does] his hand rest ominously upon his heart” (217). Due to his hopeful future, Dimmesdale no longer feels excruciating pain in his heart and no longer represents a weak, withering character. Dimmesdale gains a
Dimmesdale becomes a hypocrite for disguising his sin and acting innocent when in reality he is as much at fault as Hester is. Unlike Hester, who eventually overcomes the boundaries set by the scarlet letter, Dimmesdale resorts to whipping himself to pay for his sins. The only reasonable remedy for his sins would have been to either step down from his ministerial position or confess his sin to the public. Instead, he attempts to cover up his sin and use Hester 's sin instead in his sermons. A faithful minister would not attempt to hide his sins from his congregation; and only to make matters worse; he is a hypocrite by preaching about how terrible Hester 's sin was, even though he committed it as well. Internally Dimmesdale
Arthur Dimmesdale faces many challenges throughout the course of the novel, which causes him to evolve. Despite his many good qualities, he does not confess, while Hester Prynne gets publicly shamed for the sin they committed together. This adds up to the reader’s lack of empathy for Dimmesdale. He plays the role of “human frailty and sorrow.” The activities Hester and Dimmesdale engage in are completely unacceptable in the Puritan society. Arthur Dimmesdale is a Puritan minister, he is expected to be the representation of Puritan faith, so he refrains from disclosing the truth.
In The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is considered a very honorable person by almost everyone in the Puritan town. Practically no one would believe that he would have the ability to do any evil, much less the sin of adultery. On the contrary, Dimmesdale feels that he is a terrible person for committing this sin and not admitting it to the townspeople. This fact affects him greatly yet unexpectedly increases his popularity by inspiring him to come about with more intensifying sermons.
Dimmesdale is a man of utter respect in the puritan society. He possessed incredible speaking skills and had the ability to “move crowds”. As a result people looked up to him. Despite the fact that he was a man of prominence, he succumbed to sin. He had intercourse out of wedlock with Hester, who was already a married woman. Hester ended up having a baby, Pearl and was branded forever with the scarlet letter ‘A’ signifying adultery. Hester refused to say who the father of the child was, thereby protecting Dimmesdale’s reputation. In this moment, Dimmesdale was looking for a way for Hester to reveal their sinful actions when she was being scrutinized on the scaffold, since he did not yet have the courage to do so. Even though Dimmesdale was off the hook so to speak, his actions would end up haunting him and affecting his livelihood in the time to come.
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.