Hawthorne Demonstrates That The Purity Of Public Confession In Hawthorne

Thesis: “In Chapter 23, Hawthorne demonstrates that the purity of public confession frees people from guilt and sin. “

T.S.1: Hawthorne reveals that public confession is an act of holiness by associating Dimmesdale’s character and revelation with God.

Hawthorne reveals that public confession is an act of holiness by associating Dimmesdale’s character and revelation with God. Firstly, Hawthorne’s imagery of Dimmesdale “[ascending] before their eyes”, “[standing] out from all the earth”, and having the “sun . . . [shine] down upon [him]” suggests that Dimmesdale is exceptionally supernatural or godlike. Hawthorne’s imagery of Dimmesdale standing out from the crowd also evokes images similar to that of Jesus shimmering in holy light. In addition,

Hawthorne establishes a connection between holiness and confession through this characterization of Dimmesdale as holy as he “[delivers] the sacred message”. Moreover, the author indicates that confession is inevitable with his choice of words that signify destiny or predestination. For example, Hawthorne explicitly states that Dimmesdale is “impelled by fate” and he is “summoned . . . onward” by the “light of heaven”. Hawthorne’s choice of the adjectives “impelled” and “summoned” indicates that acknowledgements of sin do not come from within. Rather, his decision to ascribe Dimmesdale’s confession to “heaven” rather than to Dimmesdale’s own willpower or choosing suggests that people are called to confess by a powerful outside force, namely God, which again connects public confession to godliness or purity. Later in the passage, Hawthorne conveys that public confession is achieved only through God by repeatedly associating Dimmesdale’s declaration of guilt with “God’s help”, “God’s eye”, and “by the will [of] God”. Hawthorne again reinforces that confessions come from God by having Dimmesdale “repel”, “warn back”, and “throw off all assistance”, which suggests that

2: Later in the chapter, Hawthorne demonstrates that public confession liberates people from guilt. He illustrates the weakness that guilt brings by portraying Dimmesdale with “death-like” qualities and later stresses the strength that confession produces with imagery of Dimmesdale gaining strength through his revelation. In between these two phases, the author parallels Hester’s and Dimmesdale’s shame to establish the correlation between sin, weakness, and extreme shame. However, Hawthorne reveals that despite these consequences of sin, guilt be relieved through public confession.

Weakness imagery

- “feeble and pale”

- “extinguished”

- “flame that sinks down hopelessly among the late decaying embers”

- “hardly the face of a man alive” “death-like hue” “death-hour”

- “tottered on his path”

- “tremulously” “nervously” “hopelessly” “fearfully”

Guilt/shame parallel

- “lurid gleam” of scarlet letter paralleled with “red stigma” of Dimmesdale’s sin

- “horrible repugnance” of scarlet letter with “lurid gleam” of Dimmesdale’s sin

- scarlet letter is Hester’s “brand of sin and infamy” while Dimmesdale endures the “gaze of the horror-stricken multitude”

Gaining strength imagery

- “voice that rose over them”

- “high, solemn, and majestic”

- “stepped passionately forward”

- “fierceness”

- “so determined”

- “firmly”

- “piercing