Hester Prynne In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

The book, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is the scandalous story of Hester Prynne and how the scarlet letter ‘A’ burns on her breast. Hester has a child who is born in adultery. She is sentenced to stand on the dreaded scaffold and endure public shaming and to wear the letter of conviction for the rest of her days. Even in her suffering, Hester refuses to give the identity of the father, the highly regarded Minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. He is a cowardly man who is permits Hester to suffer alone. Even though he confesses his sins eventually, he refuses several other opportunities; therefore, he is weak and cowardly, and in no way a hero.

  "What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us," stated Oliver Wendell Holmes. This eventually proves to be especially true for Hester Prynne, the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne, a fair young maiden whose husband had disappeared two years prior to the opening of the novel, has an affair with the pastor of her Puritan church, resulting in the birth of her child Pearl. Because of this act of adultery, Hester Prynne is branded by the scarlet letter "A," which she is forced to forever wear upon her attire. The plot thickens as Hester's former husband returns to New England and becomes

Hester Prynne of Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter defies the Puritan belief system through her rebellion and compassion. Hester defies the Puritan belief system through her rebellion. Hester Prynne, while in Boston waiting for her husband to come from Amsterdam, commits the crime of adultery and gives birth to a child, causing her to be punished. Hawthorne describes her crime in dialogue between Hester’s husband, who has just arrived in Boston and is unaware of Hester’s circumstances, and a towns member who infers as to what she has done and how much of an uproar it has caused, during her public punishment, in the government forces her to stand on a scaffold for three hours and condemned to wear an A on her chest

Instead of confessing to the community, Dimmesdale, to try and seek forgiveness in another way than confessing, tortures himself to the brink of death. Whilst talking to Hester in the forest, Dimmesdale says: “Had I one friend, —or were it my worst enemy! —to whom, when sickened with the praises of all other men, I could daily betake myself, and be known as the vilest of all sinners, methinks my soul might keep itself alive thereby. Even thus much of truth would save me! But now, it is all falsehood! —all emptiness! —all death!” (288-289). Dimmesdale is depressed in the way that the only thing keeping him alive is his sin. Hester after seven years, is seen as a sort of hero in the community, which is shown when the town calls her “our Hester” (244). Dimmesdale is not able to confess and be forgiven, in relation to Hester already being forgiven and living a relatively decent life. Dimmesdale also must look to other methods for forgiveness while Hester lives with a static punishment. Dimmesdale physically whips himself to attempt to achieve forgiveness, he also does not have anyone to counsel about his feelings, which leads to much depression. Dimmesdale also must deal with physical and mental pain, while Hester deals with

Here it is acknowledged that Hester and Dimmesdale have committed a crime together. It also shows us that after her encounter with Dimmesdale on the scaffold, Hester sees that she must help him. She is acknowledging that he can not live with the crime in the same way that she can.

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 book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dimmesdale gets sicker and sicker the longer he holds in his secret sin of Adultery. It takes place in a Puritan society, which was a strict, conservative, and simple group in Boston Massachusetts. The book focuses on the sin of Hester Pryne committing adultery and having a child, Pearl, with a man other than her husband, Chillingworth. Hester gets shamed and laughed at on the scaffold used for public humiliation. The vulnerable and weakening Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale comes closer to confessing to being Pearl’s father throughout the three scaffold scenes. “Sin as sickness” is a major theme in the book that is represented through Reverend Dimmesdale’s internal conflict. The more Dimmesdale

In this passage fits into the novel of adding to the plot line and character development due to the fact it plays on the theme of blame. Dimmesdale is really trying to get it through Hester’s head that he wants the blame where it belongs. He believes the blame need to be on him. However, she for some reason she refuses to place it on him. You can’t help but just wonder why? Why in the world would she let it get to this where it doesn’t matter if the right person shall get blamed? Is there some sort of reason why she wants to protect him? Is she trying to prove a point? Is it worth it when you are probably the most hated in community from

Never confessing to others drives him to the far edge of life and death until he is a shell of what once was an amazing young man. In the beginning of the novel, Reverend Dimmesdale is one of the people judging Hester as she stands on the scaffold in the center of town. The ministers are persisting in asking Hester for the name of her lover, which she will not reveal. Dimmesdale suggests, “I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer!”

After all, plans were made and a passage was set. However, Dimmesdale modifies the arrangement to fulfill his personal obligations, further demonstrating his selfishness. Rather than returning to Europe, as Hester intended, Dimmesdale, “partly supported by Hester Prynne, and holding the hand of little Pearl’s”, reveals his sin to the townsmen on the scaffold (232). The public humiliation Hester and Pearl were to face never crossed his mind. In his psychological collapse, the forthcoming glee of his lover and daughter was overshadowed by his sole priority to come clean with God. He even asks Hester, “Is not this better” (232). There is no ostensible reason to why he had said this. Clearly, Dimmesdale believes revealing his sin is better because he he releasing the weight carried within his heart. Hester, however, had dreamed “for years” of restarting her life fresh with the absence of the dreadful scarlet letter, which had brought “Shame, Despair, Solitude” upon her (18). Once again, Dimmesdale flounders to understand the feelings of Hester. Why? Because he is too obsessed about his own well-being. He is simply too self-righteous to put others before

Dimmesdale as an individual and through his secret actions symbolize how self-centered and egotistical he is. Both Dimmesdale and Hester committed adultery, but Hester was the one who got all the hatred and disrespect from everyone in the Puritan town. She went through some awful situations with the scarlet letter, and it changed her so much. While she was going through all this pain, Dimmesdale was hiding his sins. This was a selfish act by Dimmesdale towards Hester and Pearl, but not admitting the sin bit him right in the butt. He was torturing himself and receiving physical pain in various ways; he whipped himself, stared at the mirror for periods of time, and starved himself. Even though he didn’t reveal his sin to the public, his heart was still “making itself guilty of such secrets” (127). He felt very guilty for the agony that Hester has been through. She has experienced hatred from herself mentally and from the Puritan people verbally. He didn’t want the people to treat him like they treated Hester; he loves how he gets respect from the townspeople. The only pain he has received was from himself mentally and physically, but not verbal and emotional pain like Hester. He doesn’t want to experience those dreadful moments that she had gone through. This action proves to the readers how Arthur Dimmesdale symbolizes self-centered

Dimmesdale is fearful as he does not want to reveal himself to the public, but rather have Hester reveal his name to the public because she shouldn’t feel, “pity and tenderness” for him. Continuing, he declares that it is worse to, “hide a guilty heart through life,” rather than admitting it to the public and stand on, “thy pedestal of shame.” Hawthorne includes this way of thinking in Dimmesdale because it contributes to the fact that he is morally ambiguous as he knows what he has done is bad, but doesn’t have the courage to admit his sin himself. In this moment, Dimmesdale endeavours at making himself feel ashamed as he talks about himself declaring, “what can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--compel him,” but notably it doesn’t force him. He proclaims that his silence will eventually force him to speak out, yet his fear and pride as a righteous minister takes over him which causes him to not reveal his name.

After Hester is released from prison, she is put upon the scaffold in front of the townspeople, who “wisely judg(e) that one token of her shame…(o)n the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A” (47). A sense of age is given through the world “wisely”

This concealed sin is the center of his tormented conscience. The pressures on him from society are greater than those on Hester because he is a man in high standing, expected to represent the epitome of the Puritanical ideals. It is ironic that Dimmesdale, who is supposed to be absolutely pure and urges congregation to confess and openly repent their sins, is incapable of doing so himself. He knows the hypocrisy of his actions but cannot bring himself to admit his deed publicly. In resentment of this he punishes himself physically - he is "often observed to put his hand over his heart, with indicative of pain" (ch 9). Dimmesdale's resistance to be true to himself gradually destroys his well being as well as Hester's, and although he eventually declares the truth, his resistance ends him.

From the start, Dimmesdale did not want to live with the consequence of his sin. To begin with, he must of told Hester not to tell anyone about his sin, because on the scaffold, she will not tell anyone (pg. 64). Clearly, Dimmesdale was afraid of the justice and the shame that would follow. He thought that if no one knew, he could