Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses the different themes of ignominiousness, sin, and censurability through his story, The Scarlet Letter. These thematic aspects apply to Hester and Dimmesdale because of the secrecy both of them obnubilate and the censurability the secrecy engenders which gradually corrodes and eradicates everything about them. The culpability Dimmesdale feels results in the decay of his soul, which is diseased by his sin, censurability, and thus, "was haunted by either Satan himself, or Satan's emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth" (118). The soul is where the source of his decay commences and this decay eventually spreads to Dimmesdale's body which commences crumbling and deteriorating. Hawthorne describes, "his
The first theme expressed in The Scarlet Letter is that even well meaning deceptions and secrets can lead to destruction. Dimmesdale is a prime example of this; he meant well by concealing his secret relationship with Hester, however, keeping it bound up was deteriorating his health. Over the course of the book this fact is made to stand out by Dimmesdale’s changing appearance. Over the course of the novel Dimmesdale becomes more pale, and emaciated. Hester prevents herself from suffer the same fate. She is open about her sin but stays loyal to her lover by not telling who is the father of Pearl. Hester matures in the book; becomes a stronger character.
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 The Scarlet Letter, the main characters Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale are tangled in a web of deceit, which is the result of a sin as deadly as the Grimm Reaper himself: adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, describes the feeling of deceit using the main characters; for each of the cast the reaction to the deceit is different, thus the reader realizes the way a person reacts to a feeling differs between each character.
No one is perfect. Especially when it comes to parenting. Even Book characters have trouble being good parents. One example of this is Hester Prynne. She is a book character for the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Now, Hester is not the worst mother, but she is not the best either. How can you be the best mother in the world with a heathenish daughter like Pearl? Still, Hester does her best, and that's all anyone should ask for. Hester is a good mother because she looks out for Pearl's future, she knows when to be stern and she is a great role model.
... him feeble. In the end, he frees himself from his guilt by admitting to everyone his sin. He crumbles under the anxiety of holding his secret inwards revealing Dimmesdale to be a rather weak male protagonist. He also is not strong enough support Hester, to show love towards Hester, or to take his own burden of sin on himself, although he does realize how wrong he is. His inability to outwardly show his sin like Hester proves Hester to be the stronger one which supports the idea that Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a feminist composition.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of the main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Sin strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into a demon.
Think about how much you love your family. How would you feel if someone tried to take them away from you? In the book The Scarlet Letter a young woman named Hester Prynne had to face this dire situation. After a heavily regretted mistake with a man from her village, Hester gave birth to a beautiful little girl whom she named Pearl. Pearl’s beauty radiated and everyone who saw her noticed it with great awe. However, despite her physical beauty, on the inside Pearl appeared a rather strange child, almost acting as a witch. When Pearl reached the age of about six, she and her mother, received a call to visit the governor’s mansion to discuss an important issue. Once they arrived the multiple men present at the mansion aroused the ponderous issue
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross once said, “Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.” This quote truly captures Dimmesdale’s death and journey to death, it is guilt that drives him to the grave and it accompanies him throughout all five grieving stages. Dimmesdale is one of many characters in The Scarlet Letter that is faced with problems both personally and spiritually. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a romantic novel about a young woman, Hester Prynne, who is permanently marked with her sin by a scarlet A she must bare on her chest and also by her daughter Pearl. Hester committed adultery with the young minister of Boston, Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester, and her beloved child Pearl, learn to over come the A and change the meaning of it from adulterer to able, while they are changing the way society views them, Dimmesdale is withering away under the “care” of Rodger Chillingworth, Hester’s past husband. Chillingworth knows about the sin and seeks revenge on Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale is helpless and in a downward spiral. He let the sin become who he is, even though the towns people don’t know of his adultery until his dying breath. The Scarlet Letter is a story about overcoming the darkness that hangs above you and stepping out of the sin or gloom that controls you. For characters like Hester this is a fairly easy thing to handle, but on the flip side characters like Dimmesdale struggle and can not seem to escape their heinous acts and don’t find peace of mind until they die. The Scarlet Letter mainly focuses on the process of overcoming these troubling times and how each individual character handles the pressure, stress, and guilt that come along with it differently. Arthur Dimmesdale is a lost soul after his sin, he expe...
Dimmesdale’s sin could not have gone unnoticed because it was his last chance at redemption and at that doing what he was supposed to do 7 years earlier before he breathed his last. Dimmesdale’s sin could not be revealed by Chillingworth because then he would have the shame of being the husband they cheated on nor it could be revealed by Mistress Hibbins because she trusted that the Black Man was going to do it and if she would have said anything people would have thought it was because he was under a dark spell from the witch and so there would not be any veracity in his repentance. The public could not have reacted any other way, because Hawthorne wanted to state a critique to the Puritan way of life that everything did not have to be punishment but mercy could be given without changing the Puritan way of life. Hester could have not lost the scarlet letter from the place it was, because it establishes the conclusion to the theme of identity in the midst of social judgement, that just because someone else has decided the scarlet letter is shameful, it does not mean Hester has to deny it because it is still a part of her that she can show not as an example of sin, but of redemption. Therefore, Hawthorne is left with the only option of writing the ending the way he did, summing up everything. He ends with the claim that even in death
Thou shall not be forgiven because both Hester and Dimmesdale had a child out of wedlock together named Pearl. That is considered a sin under God. Then Dimmesdale is the lead preacher of the town who is also called the “cheating minister”, still had a child with Hester Prynne even though he was married and it was a sin that is looked down upon. It says in the scarlet letter that “ were it not think’st thou, for little ones temporal and eternal welfare”. Another bad thing on Dimmesdale's behalf is that he decided to not tell anyone that he is the father of Pearl, “ the Demon Baby “. He told Hester Prynne that she was a sinner and that she will go to hell for her faulty actions. Near the end of the story, both Hester and Dimmesdale take Pearl
Guiltiness possesses Reverend Dimmesdale. Unlike Hester, Dimmesdale fails to come clean about his sin of fornication until moments before his death. Therefore, he struggles with his guilt throughout the entire book, almost until his death. Hester learns to cope with her scarlet “A,” but Dimmesdale cannot without confessing. When he does not confess, he becomes depressed and self-inflicts punishment on himself by carving an “A” into his chest by his heart, among other actions. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale suffers from his sin in the entire story until seconds before his death, when he absolves himself from all guilt.
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.
Hester Prynne committed a crime so severe that it changed her life into coils of torment and defeat. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester is publicly recognized as an adulteress and expelled from society. Alongside the theme of isolation, the scarlet letter, or symbol of sin, is meant to shame Hester but instead transforms her from a woman of ordinary living into a stronger person.
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.
An Essential fact to note is that The Scarlet Letter is a satire of the Puritan religion rather than a tragedy. Even though Dimmesdale acknowledges the fact that keeping his sin a secret devours his soul, he doesn’t reveal it until his death at the end of the novel. Dimmesdale’s reluctance to confess to adultery and stain his image represents his inability to overcome his sin. He is unable to elevate his mind above the norms of society unlike Hester. In the end of the novel the crowd perceiving Arthur Dimmesdale’s confession differently is a way Hawthorne relays the foolishness of Puritan society. Hawthorne reiterates the message that people believe what they wish to believe, whether it is true or not. Hawthorne utilizes Dimmesdale as a guilt ridden hypocrite to criticize Puritan society and that is why The Scarlet Letter is centered more on Dimmesdale 's tragedy and his journey rather than that of Hester