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Scarlet letter character analysis essay
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In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne states that while Dimmesdale and Hester’s sin teaches a valuable lesson, it may be more valuable to look at how Dimmesdale’s companions protect him from having his sin revealed. This is an entirely valid point because Dimmesdale and Hester committed adultery together; it was not just Hester’s sin, and yet she is completely ostracized from her community. Dimmesdale is able to gain this protection because as a minister he is considered an upstanding pillar of society. Early on in the novel, Hester is brought out into the town from her prison cell. She climbs the scaffold to stand, holding Pearl, for her judgement in front of the entire community. Dimmesdale speaks to her, urging her to reveal with whom …show more content…
Chillingworth visits Hester in prison and he tells the guard that he is a doctor, and he must heal Hester and Pearl. He demands to know who Pearl’s father is, but Hester denies him this and says that he will never know. Chillingworth then says, “Believe me, Hester, there are few things,—whether in the outward world, or, to a certain depth, in the invisible sphere of thought,—few things hidden from the man, who devotes himself earnestly and unreservedly to the solution of a mystery” (Hawthorne 52). Chillingworth indeed knows that Dimmesdale was the father of Pearl and the one who committed adultery with Hester, but he does not say anything because he wants to protect Dimmesdale’s reputation as a minister. Throughout the novel both Hester and Chillingworth go to extreme lengths to protect Dimmesdale and his reputation. Hester endures years of discrimination and ostracization, just so that Dimmesdale will not be hung as a result of the adultery. Chillingworth goes seven years knowing who Hester committed adultery with, and does not say one word, again just to protect Dimmesdale’s reputation. While Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin is a valuable lesson, it is more important to examine the ridiculous lengths that characters go to, in order to protect Dimmesdale and his
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, somewhat 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.
Life is unpredictable, and through trial and error humanity learns how to respond to conflicts and learns how to benefit from mistakes. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a character who changes and gains knowledge from the trials he faces, but first he has to go through physical, spiritual, and emotional agony. In the midst of all the havoc, the young theologian is contaminated with evil but fortunately his character develops from fragile to powerful, and the transformation Dimmesdale undergoes contributes to the plot’s climax.
Reflecting on these events, he turned his back on them when they stood on the scaffolding in the beginning, when he went to give Pearl a kiss on her forehead, and during the middle of the night after Hester and him talked. Unlike Dimmesdale, Chillingworth expresses no remorse whatsoever. Both men are well-educated as pastors and the other as doctors. These men seem to resemble both sides of the human society. The lack of faith is that Dimmesdale is a pastor and therefore must believe that God is in control and that his heavenly riches are better than anything else that can be offered to him.
[having] a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror? (135) at the same time. Hawthorne goes further beyond this description by comparing this sudden outburst of emotion to Satan?s ecstasy by saying that the only factor which ?distinguished [Chillingworth?s] ecstasy from Satan?s was the trait of wonder in it? (135). As the reader delves deeper into the book, we come to the conclusion that Dimmesdale is indeed the father of Pearl, the product of the horrendous sin consummated through Dimmesdale?s and Hester?s illicit affair. This point brings us back to Chillingworth?s reaction to realizing this earlier at the end of chapter ten. Although this shocking news explains why Chillingworth might have been angry or horrified, it does not clarify why Chillingworth did not attempt to murder or poison Dimmesdale whilst he had the chance, especially since the reader knows from a point made by Chillingworth earlier in the book, that after Chillingworth had sought out the man who had an affair with his Hester, he would have his long sought-after revenge (73).
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
In further developing Dimmesdale's character, Hawthorne portrays him as a hypocrite. His outward demeanor deceives the villagers, appearing as a completely holy man. However, before the action of the novel begins, he stumbles into sin, by committing adultery with Hester Pryn...
Dimmesdale, a Puritan minister, has had an affair (which he chose to do) with Chillingworth’s wife and he can’t come to the point where he can confess his sin to the public. Therefore, he is a secret sinner. By being this secret sinner Dimmesdale begins to physically and mentally break down. He begins to emotionally and physically beat himself up, “he whipped himself, starved himself as an act of penance until his knees trembled beneath him, and stayed up all night having long vigils and sometimes having visions” (Hawthorne 96). Dimmesdale’s sin has caught up with him and it is affecting his present along with his future; his secret sin is eating him up. He is beating himself up because he has kept it locked inside of him when he should have openness about his sin. Hester has openness about the sin they committed together, and it is not eating her up like it is eating up Dimmesdale. Not only has Dimmesdale been beating himself up, literally, over hi...
Hester and Dimmesdale’s affair goes undiscovered until Hester is pregnant and bears a child without having her husband present. As her punishment, Hester is forced to stand on the scaffold in the middle of the market place, with an A on her chest. Dimmesdale has not told a single person that he is the adulterer. He sits in the balcony with the Governor, a judge, a general, and the rest of the ministers, watching the display, without any expression or emotion. Hester and Pearl go to the Governor’s home to deliver a pair of gloves, but more importantly to inquire about the possibility of the government taking away her child. Also there with Governor Bellingham are Pastor Wilson, Reverend Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. After Mr. Wilson asks Pearl a few questions, the Governor decides that Hester is unfit as a mother and that the child would be better off in the hands of the church. Hester begs Dimmesdale, whom she says knows everything about her and has charge of her soul, to speak for her. Therefore, he does, convincing the Governor to let Hester keep Pearl. This is Dimmesdale’s first step to becoming the moral blossom. Late at night, a few years after the previous incident, Dimmesdale takes a walk through the town. He climbs onto the scaffold and pretends to confess; though there is no one out at this time at night. Hester and Pearl, on their way home, pass Dimmesdale on the scaffold. Dimmesdale calls out to them and they join him, standing hand in hand in the darkness. Dimmesdale has begun the road to confession by acknowledging Hester and Pearl and by acting out confession. Now he feels guiltier than ever.
It wasn’t until the end of the novel that Dimmesdale actually found out for sure that Chillingworth was Hester’s husband. Chillingworth asked Hester to conceal his identity and no one other than those two knew of the truth. The townspeople believed that her husband is an Englishman and was previously living with Hester in Amsterdam but decided that they should move to America. Once sending Hester to America first, he never joined her. Not only does Chillingworth hide his identity as Hester’s husband, he also sort of gains another identity as being the “Black Man.” This identity grows on him more and more as the novel progresses. While Dimmesdale and Hester are in the forest together, Hester finally decides to tell who Chillingworth really is. By this part though, it was made obvious that Dimmesdale had sort of a suspicion of it. He doesn’t too much worry about it since he has plans for him, Hester, and Pearl to leave for
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
In “The Scarlet Letter,” the main character Hester get punished for adultery. In the beginning, she thought that her husband has died so she fell in love with Dimmesdale. However, her husband did not die and came back. Her husband, Chillingworth, later finds out that Hester has a secret lover. Therefore tried to find out who he is. At first Chillingworth does not reveal himself as Hester’s husband because she was being punished for adultery and he did not want to be ashamed. Later he tries to find out Hester’s secret lover by asking her but she will not tell him which makes him for desperate and angry. When he finds out that the secret lover is Dimmesdale, he finds out a secret about Dimmesdale.
Although perceived as two utterly different men, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth share some remarkable similarities. Lying is one of these connections, as both men lie to one another concerning their connections to Hester and she conceals the secrets of their connections to her as well. Inquisitive as to whom Hester loved Chillingworth questions her, and she replies, “That thou shalt never know!” (86), so Chillingworth says to Hester “Breathe not, to any human soul, that thou dost ever call me husband!” (88), and she replies, “I will keep thy secret, as I have this” (88). Even though one would suppose both men to have significant roles in Hester’s life, they distance themselves and pretend as
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.
As a living reminder of Hester’s extreme sin, Pearl is her constant companion. From the beginning Pearl has always been considered as an evil child. For Hester to take care of such a demanding child, put lots of stress onto her life. Hester at times was in a state of uncontrollable pressure. “Gazing at Pearl, Hester Prynne often dropped her work upon her knees, and cried out with an agony which she would fain have hidden, but which made utterance for itself, betwixt speech and a groan, ‘O Father in heaven- if Thou art still my Father- what is this being which I have brought into the world!’” (Hawthorne, 77).
He feels “the responsibility of [Hester’s] soul”(Hawthorne 62) because he is guilty as well, yet she is taking all the blame. As he watches Hester stand in front of the entire town with the scarlet letter burning into her chest, he finally realizes the pain he has inflicted upon her. She is now a social outcast, forced to raise a baby by herself. This is the first time that Dimmesdale has come face to face with his sin, which therefore causes him to experience physical discomfort in order to punish himself. He begins to develop the habit of wincing in pain “with his hand [over] his heart” (Hawthorne 64) almost symbolically placing his own scarlet letter on his chest. Although he cannot come forward, he subconsciously still feels the effects of being branded as an adulterer which ultimately display themselves in a physical manner. This leads to the beginning of Dimmesdale’s downward spiral, as his guilt continues to manifest inside of