Hester Prynne And Arthur Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter

It is believed in Puritan society that “The wages of sin is death.” In Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are both sufferers of this harsh seclusion for committing adultery. Hester and Dimmesdale are victims of the brutal isolation from Puritan society on the foundation of their sins. Degradation and isolation confiscate Hester of her spirit and energy while guilt tears on Dimmesdale's soul more torturously for its absence of confession. The result of their sin is death while their child is "the sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track."

Through Hester's exclusion from society and the tortuous nature of her shame, she is stripped of all passion and humanity. Since society acknowledges Hester's sin, she becomes an exile in

her own town, as "All the world has frowned on her" (Hawthorne 239), and Hester must bear the force of her shameful isolation. Devoid of any social contact, excluding that of her daughter, Hester must endure a lonely existence, “There was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to society," (102) she therefore turns to herself for reflection of her shame. Hester's ostracism from a stoic society and the burdensome nature of her shame, deprive her of life. Treated as a dangerous delinquent by society, Hester begins to question her humanity. Due to her intense suffering, "some attribute departs from Hester, which had been essential to keep her a woman" (190). Stripped of her passion and femininity, Hester is left as an iron character with a solemn manner. Her shame remains to haunt her until her dying day.
Dimmesdale's acquisition with the evils of isolation is distinct from Hester's due to the fact that his sin remains a secret from the public. Tormented by his grievous sin and the duplicity of a fraudulent lifestyle, Dimmesdale's physical stature is destroyed. The only truth that continues to give Dimmesdale a real existence is "the anguish in his inmost soul" (131). In which he wears "his hand over his heart" (138), as an indication of his shame eating away at his soul. The sum of this torment is manifested in the form of a bodily disease, which serves to deteriorate the reverend. Dimmesdale endures a constant resentment and torment of heart from the contrast between who he appears to be and who he truly is. Due to these multiple lifestyles, Dimmesdale is often perplexed as to which may be true, and is only able to find peace in death and confession. Revealing his sin to society, he frees himself to advance toward God's judgment.
As a symbol, Pearl functions first as a reminder of Hester's passion.

Hester realizes this in the first scaffold scene when she resists the temptation to hold Pearl in front of the scarlet A, "wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another" (65). Pearl is, in fact, the personification of that act. Even as a baby, she instinctively reaches for the scarlet letter. Pearl is also the conscience of Dimmesdale. In Chapter 3, when Hester stands with her on the scaffold, Pearl reaches out to her father, but he does not acknowledge her. She repeats her request for recognition, and in her intuitive way, she realizes what he must do so to find salvation. In the end, it is her father’s actions that save her, making her truly human and giving her human sympathies and feelings. The great sense of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were the pledge that she would "grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it" (338). She is a combination of her mother's passion and intuitive understanding, and her father's keen mental

awareness.
Only in death do Hester and Dimmesdale escape the agony that arises from isolation. The evolution of Pearl into a fully human child because of her father's public recognition of her is the "moral blossom," since her "errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled." This destructive nature of shame from sin is a powerful weapon.