Hester Prynne And Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter

Even though Hester’s sin is the one the book is titled after and centered around, it is not nearly the worst sin committed. Hester learns from her sin, and grows strong, a direct result of her punishment. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. “ Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers--stern and wild ones--and they had made her strong... “ Hester also deceived Dimmesdale, also committing the sin of deception. She swore to Chillingworth that she would keep their marriage a secret. She even withheld this from Dimmesdale, whom she truly loved. Hester finally insisted on telling Dimmesdale and clearing her conscience. In this passage, you can see how he grows angry at Hester: “O Hester Prynne, thou little, little knowest all the horror of this thing! And the shame!--the indelicacy!--the horrible ugliness of this exposure of a sick and guilty heart to the very eye that would gloat over it! Woman, woman, thou art accountable for this! I cannot forgive thee!”  Dimmesdale does forgive Hester. She has done

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale takes the easy way out and does not tell the community that he is the one that committed adultery with Hester Prynne, which led to more pain than he saved. Him and Hester Prynne committed adultery together and as a result of that, they have a

The narrator reveals that Hester is still “so passionately,” (Hawthorne 190) in love with Dimmesdale in chapter seventeen when she makes the decision to reveal Chillingworth’s identity. It is proven that Dimmesdale shares these feelings later on in the same passage when he forgives her for not revealing Chillingworth’s identity sooner and they reminisce on their sin. Dimmesdale tells Hester, “I have not forgotten!” (Hawthorne 191) This is in reference to their love for one another when they committed their sin seven years ago. Hester’s willingness to abandon New England and take off with Dimmesdale and their daughter towards the end of the novel shows that Dimmesdale was the one who truly held her back from leaving, not her sin. While the sin played a part in her own guilt, Dimmesdale was the one she truly stayed for. Their emotions towards one another are extremely complex, but had Chillingworth not ruined their potential escape plan, I believe that they would have lived out the last of Dimmesdale’s sickly days as a

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne exhibits how three very unique characters are evidently brought together by the sins that they have perpetrated and how they manage to perform acts of atonement in the puritanical Boston society. Hester Prynne sins by committing the shocking transgression of adultery. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who as well engages in adultery with Hester, abandons her and their daugher because of his own cowardice and hypocrisy. Roger Chillingworth grows to become a maleficent being who tries to corrupt the very soul of Reverend Dimmesdale. Although Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale do sin greatly, it is Roger Chillingworth who sins to the most ferocious degree.

Dimmesdale doesn’t tell anyone that he’s Hester’s lover and when given the chance to admit his sin, he let it go so many times . There is a time Hester asks him for help when the old minister tries to take Pearl away from her, she says “Thou wast my pastor, and hadst charge of my soul, and knows me better than these men can. I will not lose my child! Speak for me! Thou knows,—for thou hast sympathies which these men lack!—thou knows what is in my heart, and what are a mother’s rights, and how much the stronger there are when that mother has but her child and the scarlet letter! Look thou to it! I will not lose the child! Look to it!” (105). At that time there’s an opportunity that he could tell everyone the truth and stand up for them, but he chooses to hide it instead to admit what he has done and allow everyone to learn from his imperfection. He is the worst sinner because he is a coward that he decides not to confess to everyone even though he has so many opportunities.

In the Scarlet Letter there are two characters that are provided as a foil for one another. The one character Dimmesdale seems as if he is kind, but he has a terrible burden on him that is being torturing out of him. Chillingworth is his opposite. You think he is nice when really he is quite evil. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth bring out each other's characteristics and bring out the characteristics of other characters around them.

To be fair, Hester and Dimmesdale also commit another crime. Specifically, Hester breaks the sixth commandment "You shall not commit adultery" (Gerber 25). Similarly, Dimmesdale sins against the ninth commandment " You shall not covet your neighbour's wife" (Gerber 27). Clearly, the star-crossed lovers of this work are

This scene in the book makes the reader feel as though Dimmesdale’s salvation is a reality because of all the opportunities he had to confess his sin but didn’t until now. Also during this scene, Dimmesdale not only asks for God’s forgiveness for himself, but Chilling worth too because he discovered that Dimmesdale is Hester’s partner. "May God forgive thee!" said the minister. "Thou, too, hast deeply sinned!" (23.28-29) In this part of the book, Dimmesdale makes it appear that he and God have a type of an abusive relationship, but Dimmesdale thinks he deserves every bit of it. "God knows; and He is merciful! He hath proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man, to keep

First of all, when Dimmesdale became a priest, he took saintly vows. Among these, being the vow to remain celibate for the rest of his life. Not only did he break this holy vow, but Hester Prynne also ended up pregnant as a result. Dishonorable as this is in and of itself, the minister chose to hide his misdeed from the community, allowing Hester to bear her punishment alone. A noble man would not have made the transgression in the first place, but a truly noble man would have admitted his wrongdoing and accepted the repercussions. He would not have

The sin between Hester and Dimmesdale affected the whole town, but has affected Chillingworth more. Chillingworth in the beginning of the book has been pronounced dead, but he is, in reality not dead. He comes back to the town with Hester as she is getting punished for committing adultery. Chillingworth later talks to Hester in the prison to try and get the information of who Pearl’s father is. In this scene he asks Hester to not reveal that he, her husband, is alive. Chillingworth then swears to get revenge on whoever has committed the sin with Hester. We know that Chillingworth was not the best husband to Hester. He ignored his wife when they were together, as well as, he expected Hester to love him back even if he did nothing that

In the story “The Scarlet Letter” we were asked, are Hester and Dimmesdale forgiven or not? The answer to that is simple. No, they were not forgiven.

From this sin came a very happy and energetic girl “Pearl”. So from the beginning, we see the sin that was committed. We only know half of who the sin truly belongs. “I thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life.” (Hawthorne 53) This is the first time we get a glimpse of guilt and the possibility that Dimmsdale is the fellow-sinner. As a preacher who speaks against sin, this is extremely hard for him. He wants to tell the truth but Hester won’t let him. This sin begins to completely consume one character the Reverend Dimmsdale. The guilt he feels drives him mad and causes him to carve an “A” into his chest and wonders the streets while asleep trying to let his sin be known. He even sits upon the gallows trying to tell people. The secret sin within this work was the sin of adultery not for Hester but her lover Dimmesdale. Throughout his works he speaks of different sins such is the case in the Ministers Black Veil.

Imagine yourself on display in front of your whole town, being punished for cheating on your husband or wife. Today adultery is looked down on, but in reality nobody makes a huge deal out of it. Sin can affect a person in many ways, but whether it’s good or bad only time can tell. In the old days, religion and law were looked at as one, and Hester Prynne just so happened to sin, which in turn caused her to break the law. In the novel, Hester displays that how a person deals with sin has a lasting impact on the people around her, and most importantly those that are the closest to her.

Hester and Dimmesdale aren’t all too different. They are both parents to Pearl, and they both committed adultery. Hester and Dimmesdale are both kind people with hearts that could never

Hester Prynne, a character within The Scarlet Letter, is a prime example of Hawthorne's common transformation of individuals within his books. These mutations involve the qualities and attributes of her physical appearance, feminine emotions, and reputation among the townspeople. Throughout the novel, the mentioned elements of Hester's character develop and change several times, providing the reader with better understanding of the influence that the scarlet letter and other characters have on her.