In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne uses public shaming and how Hester and Dimmesdale are affected by public shaming (or lack thereof) to emphasize the unintended consequences of public shaming -- that instead of deterring unlawful acts, it simply causes people to hide the fact that they committed such acts and recognize the disadvantages of the strict social conventions that led to the public shaming.
Even though Dimmesdale never goes through public shaming, he is still affected by it since he buries his secrets and it makes him realize the downfalls of the strict Puritanical doctrines the town lives by. He buries the fact that he has committed adultery, and in doing so, he becomes acutely aware of his own and other’s
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hypocrisy and sin. This is because he alone has to bear the burden of being a sinner while simultaneously being revered as one of the most holy persons in the community, which highlights the stark contrast between Dimmesdale’s ideals and his reality, and therefore, his hypocrisy.
Due to his recognition of this difference, he is able to empathize with the people : he is able to understand their sorrows and guilt instead of being elevated on a pedestal of holiness like his clergymen peers. His awareness also provides him inspiration as to what subjects would touch the townspeople the most, which is why his sermons are so well liked by the people. This is because of Dimmesdale’s ability to think outside of the strict constraints of Puritanical doctrines; he recognizes that by adhering to them, he will not be able to help and reach the people as well. He is also hiding his adultery for the same reason : if he is publicly shamed, he does not think that he will be able to help the people. Despite this seemingly being an ironic statement, in a way, it is actually a show of Dimmesdale’s intelligence: by maximizing his suffering by keeping the fact that he is an adulterer secret, Dimmesdale is able to better relate to the people and therefore better able to help them -- which is his main concern as a …show more content…
preacher, as shown by his worry that he will not be able to do so if he reveals his secret to the public. In conclusion, public shaming affects Dimmesdale since it makes him recognize the downfalls of strictly adhering to Puritanical doctrines (not being able to reach the people as well); it also makes him hide the fact that he committed adultery since he fears that if he is publicly shamed he will not be able to help the people. Public shaming affects Bostonian society by censoring it, which in turn causes the townspeople to bury their wrongdoings. In Boston, restriction of independent thought is most prevalent in the display of the mob mentality, which is crucial to public shaming. This is especially shown by the Puritan women who judge Hester harshly for her sin; one even uses Puritanical doctrines to justify her belief that Hester should be executed, “What do we talk of marks and brands… This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book.” (Hawthorne 5). It is also stated that free thinking is frowned upon by authority, “freedom of speculation… [if] our forefathers, had they known of it, would have held to be a deadlier crime than that stigmatized by the scarlet letter.”(Hawthorne 116). Since sin is frowned upon and shamed by society, people self-censor and hide their wrongdoings in order to preserve their public image. This is mostly shown through Dimmesdale, whom hides the fact that he committed adultery from the public in order to preserve his image as a holy and good preacher in order to be able to reach the people. Dimmesdale also is shown to have strikingly different inner and outer selves, as shown by Chapter 20 in which he has to restrict himself from revealing his innermost thoughts. For example, he has to exercise very strong self-control in order to not blurt out his blasphemous thoughts as he is passing by a deacon. Another example of the extent to which people hide their wrongdoings is when Hester realizes that everyone is a sinner, “ She felt or fancied, then, that the scarlet letter had endowed her with a new sense. [She believed] that it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts… if the truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides Hester Prynne’s?” (Hawthorne 39). The extent of the burial of wrongdoings is especially emphasized here since Hester is not speaking about a specific person; she is speaking about society as a whole. By doing this, Hawthorne is trying to to show how out of line Puritan ideals and Puritan behaviors are; despite having pride in being a holy and disciplined people, the Puritans commit sins frequently and hide the fact that they did such things. Ultimately, the prevalence of public shaming leads to a censored society in which everyone buries their secrets in order to appear in line with the Puritanical doctrines. The difference between the intended and unintended consequences of public shaming are most displayed in Hester -- public shaming is supposed to have made her feel guilty for her actions, but instead it leads to her thinking more outside of Puritanical doctrines and even eventual reverence.
In fact, it is even stated that Hester does not restrict herself to thinking within the Puritanical doctrines:“The world’s law was no law for her mind… She assumed a freedom of speculation”(Hawthorne 116). She also questions Puritan ideals by questioning the meaning of womanhood, “Was existence worth accepting, even to the happiest [of women]?... the whole system of a society is to be torn down and built up anew.”(Hawthorne 117). By giving Hester a critical view of public shaming and Puritan society in general, Hawthorne is exposing to the flaws of Puritan society--it does not work. It is also important to note that besides becoming more rational, Hester does not become more religious -- something that Puritan ideals would have valued. This is because it is never explicitly mentioned in the book that Hester increases her devotion to God. This lack of change further emphasizes Hester’s detachment of Puritan ideals since she is not thinking about the basis for their ideas -- to be favorable in the eyes of God. Later, the scarlet letter changes from being a symbol of shame to a symbol of reverence; Hester becomes a trusted confidante due to her experience and knowledge of the
nature of sin-- something Puritan clergymen would not have had. This further demonstrates how public shaming can often have unintended consequences since it was intended to make Hester isolated and shunned but instead leads to her becoming a revered figure. In short, instead of being shamed into following Puritan ideals, Hester instead becomes more detached from them and is even looked up to do to her detachment from them.
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...
Instead of humbling himself in front of everyone in the beginning, he chooses his pride and his position of power over God’s merciful grace. In conclusion, with these arguments, it is indisputable that Dimmesdale experiences more guilt than any other character. He attempts every possible way to circumvent the inevitable.
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.
To the town, Dimmesdale appears to be perfectly righteous and is respected highly; while in reality, he is just as guilty as Hester. The hypocrisy of his character first begins to develop as he denies his own sinfulness
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempted to expose the varying ways in which different people deal with lingering guilt from sins they have perpetrated. The contrasting characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale ideally exemplified the differences in thought and behavior people have for guilt. Although they were both guilty of committing the same crime, these two individuals differed in that one punished themselves with physical and mental torture and the other chose to continue on with their life, devoting it to those less fortunate than they.
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...
As Hester wears the scarlet letter, the reader can feel how much of an outcast Hester becomes. When walking through town, “…she never raised her head to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter and passed on” (Hawthorne, 127).She believes that she is not worthy of the towns acknowledgments and chooses to ignore them. The guilt that now rests in Hester is overwhelming to her and is a reason of her change in personality.
Every human has sinned but Dimmesdale’s evil deeds led him to live a double life—one as a godly minister and another as the “greatest sinner.” Meanwhile Hester was at trial and being punished for her sin, Dimmesdale showed no sign of guilt and he did not have the valor to stand by her side and take full accountability for his actions. Not only did Dimmesdale fail as a lover, but he also failed as a father by denying Pearl and allowing her to live as an outcast. The townspeople held the minister as a saint but little did they know that he disobeyed the eighth commandment from Exodus 20:16, by hiding the truth from his church Dimmesdale became a liar. Moreover, in chapter twenty Dimmesdale confesses all the evil thoughts that roam in his mind and that his flesh desires to do. He even states how he has used his eloquence to manipulate the youngest female member to attend church. As a result of all the evil deeds, the minister seems to depart from his relationship with God and is confused. Dimmesdale becomes lost and desperate, he habitually questions life and his identity but ironically the famed theologian finds no concrete answers to h...
Dimmesdale is very hypocritical in how he handles the subject of his sin. For example, he says "Be not silent from any mistaken pity or tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he 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 he...
People living in Boston, Massachusetts looked up to and respected Dimmesdale because he was a minister. One of his sins was his inability to publicly acknowledge that he committed adultery with Hester and that he is the father of Pearl, Hester’s daughter. However, adultery was not his biggest sin. His biggest sin is hypocrisy. In chapter ten, he speaks of the concealment of his sins, he says, “It may be that they are kept silent by the very constistution of their nature. Or-can we not suppose it-guilty as they may be, retaining, nevertheless, a zeal for God’s glory and man’s welfare…no evil of the past be redeemed by better service (pg. 137).” While trying to conceal his sins, they take over his conscience and literally confess themselves during his acts of madness.
She begins to transform internally. The legitimacy of the principles Hester formerly believed in is diminishing. Her thoughts are becoming more progressive than those of the Puritans. Previously, Hester felt an unbearable pain when Pearl touched the Scarlet Letter. Now she is unfazed by it. Hester recognizes that she is “standing alone in the world … hopeless of retrieving her position” in society (Hawthorne 107). She does not feel the same connection to Puritan society anymore, which frees her mind from some of the agony she has been going through. Hester’s mindset is so far ahead of her time that “the world’s law [is] no law for her mind” (Hawthorne 107). Hester does not, however, attempt to share these thoughts. It would be lethal to reveal such enlightened beliefs among Puritans; they would likely consider her a witch or an agent of the devil. Instead, Hester continues to keep to herself, slowly growing further from her
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 Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 is a book about a woman that had an affair with another man while her husband was gone and it goes in-depth of her everyday struggles. During the Scarlett letter the author alludes to puritan public and private punishment through vivid symbols and he hints that private punishment is worse than public punishment. The author; Nathaniel, Hawthorne is comparing and contrasting Hester’s letter A(which is seen as a public punishment) and Dimmesdale’s hidden A(which is seen as a private punishment). By looking at Dimmesdale’s metaphorical “A” one can infer that private punishment is worse than public punishment which is important because it conveys the long-lasting struggles of holding
Arthur Dimmesdale presented himself as an uncorrupted man by his social status. Inside he felt unworthy and corrupt form the sin he has committed. The town’s people looked up to Dimmesdale as a man who could commit no grand sin. “People say that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes it very seriously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation.” (48). Little did they know that the scandal that Dimmesdale took to hear was the fornication that happened between Dimmesdale and adulteress Hester Prynne. His sinful ways was affecting his health greatly. “Some declared, that, if Mr. Dimmesdale were really going to die, it was cause enough, that the world was not worthy to be any longer trodden by his feet.” (106). The town’s people respected him so much so that they figured it was the world that is corrupt and not Dimmesdale.