Arthur: Tragic Hero or Merely Tragic?
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's torrid tale of The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale, a main character, is confronted with a number of circumstances, both in and out of his control, that lead to his ultimate demise. While it can be argued that Arthur is a tragic hero, he lacks the underlying goodness and strength essential for him to fulfill this role. Otherwise, it may be demonstrated that Arthur meets all the criteria as a tragic hero, though there are other discrepancies to be noted.
Arthur Dimmesdale, a minister, lives his life under the watchful yet admiring eye of the townspeople of Boston and, as a result, becomes a slave to the public opinion. His sin against Hester and Pearl is that he will not acknowledge them as his wife and daughter in the daylight. He keeps his dreadful secret from all those under his care in the church for seven years for fear that he will lose their love and they will not forgive him. He is too weak to admit his sins openly and in their entirety. Instead, he allows his parishioners to lift him in their esteem by confessing, in all humility, that he is a sinner: "The minister well knew--subtle but remorseful hypocrite that he was!--the light in which his vague confession would be viewed." (127) They love him all the more for his honest and humble character, and this is Arthur's intent. Even as he plans to run away with Hester four days after their meeting in the forest, he comforts himself with the knowledge that he will give his sermon on predestination on the third day, and thus will leave his community with fond memories of his final exhortation. Arthur's flaw can be found in the fact that he chooses to value the public view above those of Hester, his love, and God, his master.
Arthur, punishing himself for his ugly secret, which his need for public affirmation will not let him reveal, gradually kills himself through guilt and masochistic ritual.
His inward trouble drove him more in accordance with the old, corrupted faith of Rome, than with the better light of the church in which he had been born and bred. In Mr. Dimmesdale's secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge. Oftentimes, this Protestant and Puritan divine had plied it on his own shoulders; laughing bitterly at himself all the while.
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.
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.
Arthur Dimmesdale is a young Reverend who fell in love with Hester Prynne and is the father to Pearl. Hester refuses to name Pearl's father as the Reverend in order to protect his honor but this guilt eats away at the Reverend and cause him to constantly punish himself for the sin he has committed, he starves and whips himself and stays up praying for hours. This psychological and physical torture he puts himself through causes him to develop a heart condition. The Reverend's biggest obstacle he must overcome is himself; the Reverend lives a very difficult life because he is supposedly a man of god yet he has committed a deadly sin. In order to alleviate his guilt the Reverend writes wonderful sermons, which he delivers, to his followers. The
Dimmesdale is the “wretched minister!” who is tempted by his dream of happiness. This made him yield to what he well knew was a deadly sin. He is a man of faith and it was wrong for him to commit such a sin or leave the town for an evil pursuit. He feels he has dealt his puritan soul to the devil and this makes him have a guilty conscience. He starts changing character and even starts saying things a man of his status would not have said Arthur had been feeling weird since he proposed to Hester, seven years ago. It takes him a completely new light to start feeling free.
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 to the public with no doubt of his guilt, it was upon the spot where Hester served her punishment for their crime....
The reverend’s burden of secret sin ultimately led to his demise, while proving his pompous concern for life after death. Dimmesdale’s life was terminated prematurely due to the anchor of sin he bore day in and day out. The minister’s lover, Hester, “made the best possible recovery,” but was still condemned to “spend her life in retribution” (Jones). Notwithstanding Hester’s actions, Arthur’s “burden of carrying the secret sin literally killed him” (Jones). For seven long years, the ordinate saw the reprimands which Hester endured, such as public shame and forced isolation. Rather than join her in humiliation, Arthur chose to contain the depravity within his heart in fear of retribution. Had the minister confessed his immoralities, he would have paid earthly punishment, but would have endured for not bearing the corruptive evil on a daily basis. Dimmesdale understood his action’s outcomes because he would rather die with a holy legacy than go down in infamy for being an adulterer. When Arthur finally acknowledged his debauchery, his motives for doing so were still fainthearted. Reverend Dimmesdale’s redemption came from his own self-interest with little regards for Hester and Pearl. When the minister presented himself to the colony on the scaffold, he acknowledged his “death of triumphant ignominy before the people,” just before passing (Hawthorne 210). Regardless of Arthur’s depravity, he
Arthur Dimmesdale’s sin has made him believe that his ministry at the church has become better. Dimmesdale’s guilt has helped him become more in touch with his feelings which make his sermons more believable and therefore better. Before the guilt, Arthur Dimmesdale was a pretty boring man who spoke almost with no heart or feelings towards human emotions. As a man of the church he was losing people right before his eyes. His sin of adultery helped him feel what he couldn’t’ feel before. Dimmesdale 's words are now far more sensitive and deeper because he has the experience torturing him every day. Even with his fault, Arthur continued his life following Hester helping her the best he could as the guilt slowly sank in. Arthur Dimmesdale has now met Roger Chillingworth an English scholar. Chillingworth is Hester Prynne’s husband but agrees to not tell anyone of this because of the shame that he would get from his wife’s depravity. Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale become friends because of the bond they have with Chillingworth being Dimmesdale’s physician and medical caretaker with his health. Hester is the only one who knows both the identities of the two
One appropriate illness he suffers from is major depression, which according to WebMD’s “Clinical Depression” article, is a “constant sense of hopelessness and despair… [Occurring] once or several times in a lifetime. (WebMD 1). The causes to major depression for men are by genes, brain chemistry/hormones, and stress, as stated in the National Institution of Mental Health article, “Men and Depression” (NIMH n/a). In this case, stress was the cause to Dimmesdale’s illness, as he has been conflicted with his hypocrisy and the courage to reveal his sin. This stressful situation bothers Dimmesdale to the point of condemning himself in his sermons, which his listeners deny in disbelief, and continue to admire him. Thus leading to more stress and the further deterioration of his mental health, Dimmesdale “loathed his miserable self.” (Hawthorne
... live life and be with her, or die and for them to be together.
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.
...actly how he viewed the church. He saw the church as a spiritually hindering institution that has misconstrued the true message of the gospels. The fertility of flowers had been replaced with graves, and the promise of new life found through the teachings of Jesus had been replaced by repressive Priests that patrolled the aisles in their black gowns.
When a secret is hidden inside it can engulf and even destroy a person. Arthur Dimmesdale, a revered young minister in the town, demonstrates what happens to the soul. Dimmesdale, as it is later made known, commits the serious crime of adultery with a young married woman named Hester Prynne living in the Plymouth Colony. Hester is unwilling to reveal her partner in sin. Dimmesdale’s fear of persecution and humiliation forces him to keep his sin a secret. So he watches as Hester is placed before her peers on a platform in front of the whole town and is then called to speak to her and urge that she reveal her fellow adulterer. In essence, he is called upon to commit yet another sin, that of hypocrisy. Dimmesdale’s accumulated sins build inside of him, constantly afflicting his soul until it begins to affect him physically. Thinking himself a hypocrite, he tries to ease his conscience and requite his sin by scourging himself on the chest during the night, fasting for days on end and even climbing the same platform on which Hester began her humiliation.
At the beginning, Benedick’s attitude is negative towards women in general. He swears he will never marry, as he is very critical of women and does not trust any of them not to cheat on him. He seems to oppose with Beatrice in a competition to outwit, outsmart, and out-insult each other. Obviously he has been in some sort of past relationship with Beatrice because when he meets her at the masked ball, she describes him as a selfish pig. We can infer that Benedick has some kind of deep feelings for her because after she insults him he is hurt and says, “Will your grace command me any service to the world’s end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on. I will fetch you a toothpick from the furthest inch of Asia . . . do you any embassage to the pigmies, rather than hold three words’ conference with this harpy” (II.i.229–235). This blatantly means that he does not wish to talk to her.
what he was going to get, and he is not responsible for his fate, he
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.