Prynne And Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the narrator’s revelations clarify the actions of the crucial pairing, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, in regards to the classic “prisoner’s dilemma.” This famous ultimatum concerns the decisions of two guilty parties, as the consequences for both offenders hinge entirely on whether either person chooses to confess and betray their co-conspirator, or stay silent. Within Hawthorne’s novel, the criminal parties are Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, and the crime is their adultery. Both Prynne and Dimmesdale decide to remain quiet, and, consequently, they both suffer for it. Hester presents her choice in response to a command that urges her to confess her partner’s name. She brazenly says, “I will not speak!” (Chapter 3; page 49).

For example, in the fourth chapter, Hester explains that she “thought about death,” and she even “wished for it [death].” Additionally, Hester says “she ha[s] always this dreadful agony” when others observe her scarlet letter (Chapter 5; page 58). In order to lessen the punishment for both Hester and himself, Rev. Dimmesdale also chose to abstain from confession, establishing the likely outcomes of this prisoner’s dilemma. The narrator depicts Arthur Dimmesdale as a man desperately clinging to his silence in Chapter 12, when he denies Pearl’s request to “stand here with mother and me, to-morrow noontide,” (page 92) since the public would be able to see him and discern his crimes. To emphasize Rev. Dimmesdale’s decision to remain silent, the author writes that Pearl inquires him once more, on page 93. Arthur Dimmesdale again rejects Pearl’s request to stand with them together on the scaffold, in front of the town--he chooses to continue his silence. However, Hester and