How Does Dimmesdale Change In The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter Arthur Dimmesdale’s sin of concealment leads to his downfall. Arthur Dimmesdale had an excellent reputation in town as a Puritan minister, however Dimmesdale himself bore a lot of guilt because he was keeping his sin, his affair with Hester Prynne, a secret. Dimmesdale and Hester had a baby. Hester was punished as an adulterer, however she refused to say who the baby’s father was. Dimmesdale knew that his reputation would be ruined if the Puritan people found out his sin.

The setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet letter” is crucial to the understanding of the event that takes place in the story. The setting of the story is in Salem, Massachusetts during the Puritan era. During the Puritan era, adultery was taken as a very serious sin, and this is what Hester and Dimmesdale committ with each other. Because of the sin, their lives change, Hester has to walk around in public with a Scarlet Letter “A” which stands for adultery, and she is constantly being tortured and is thought of as less than a person. Dimmesdale walks around with his sin kept as secret, because he never admits his sin, his mental state is changing, and the sin degrades his well-being. Chillingworth

Dimmesdale believes that Hester has declared her sins through the scarlet A on her chest and it relieves her burden. Dimmesdales hidden thoughts, however, seem to be the source of his illness. Despite this, he doesn’t tell anyone and doesn’t believe in confessing to an “earthly physician” and believes he should only confess to Christ. Chillingworth gets impatient but after they fight, the two men make up. Later, Dimmesdale falls asleep and Chillingworth goes to his room and lifts his shirt to reveal something that excites him. To me, his secretive nature reveals his not-so-positive intentions and the townspeople rightly suspect him of acting darkly towards the

Dimmesdale who is one of the main character in the Scarlet letter by Nathaniel hawthorne, appeared to be sick and haved sinned. Dimmesdale and hester prynne both have commit the sin adultery. Hester was punished but Dimmesdale had hid his sin for only Hester knew until her husband came and found out.

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, proves to be a sinner against man, against God and most importantly against himself because he has committed adultery with Hester Prynne, resulting in an illegitimate child, Pearl. His sinning against himself, for which he ultimately paid the

We learn later on that the shame of his sin is causing him to self harm and become very sick. To deal with this, Dimmesdale decides to take his spot on the scaffold at midnight when nobody can see him, in order to make peace with himself for what he has done. During this experience, his paranoia of being discovered causes him so much stress that he shrieks out in pain. Over the course of the night he begins to come to terms with his sin as he greets those who walk past him and later invites Hester and Pearl up onto the scaffold to join him in his vigil. Even though Dimmesdale is realizing that he must confront his sin instead of hide from it, when Pearl asks him to come back to the scaffold at noon the next day, he simply can’t do it.

He continually makes excuses to justify his wrongdoings and compares himself to others. He explains to Hester “We are not… the worst sinner in the world. May God forgive us both! There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated… the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!” (TSL 176). He sees the wrong in Chillingworth’s heart and turns to criticizing that rather than taking ownership over his own life. He sees the relatively worse intent of another as justification for his faults, even though he knows, on some level, that he is still in the wrong. Eventually, however, Dimmesdale recognizes that the reason for his anguish is his secrecy, so he decides to admit his secret to his fellow townspeople. Dimmesdale ultimately reveals “I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with this woman ... Lo, the scarlet letter which Hester wears! Ye have all shuddered at it! ... But there stood one in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye have not shuddered!” (Hawthorne, TSL 227). He cannot live with the guilt of lying to others about his equal culpability as Hester. Dimmesdale knows that the only means to find peace is to be completely

story because of the actions that she chooses to make, she becomes a better person and society finally accepts her and forgives her for her sins. Although, at first the town hates Hester and forces her to wear the scarlet letter, they finally forgive her. Time passes and she doesn’t have to wear the letter anymore and she almost fits in exactly the way she did before she committed adultery. Even though her reputation was almost back to normal, the legacy of the scarlet letter was never forgotten.

However, unlike Hester Prynne who symbolizes the exposed sin, Dimmesdale never gets the relief of forgiving himself. As the novel progresses, Dimmesdale’s weakness portrays his guilt from keeping his sin a secret. Hawthorne displays that a publicized sin is the only way Dimmesdale can get rid of his guilt and shame, and that his method of

Dimmesdale’s condition becomes no better, especially under the intrusive care of Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, who of course has ulterior motives for agreeing to be his caretaker. Towards the end of the novel, Dimmesdale’s conditions spike, but this time in a positive way; this of course occurring after he accepts his sin and makes plans to flee the town with Hester and Pearl. Racing through the town, Dimmesdale feels energetic and impulsive, wanting to say to everyone that he passes “‘I am not the man for who you take me! I left him yonder in the

After he becomes lovers with Hester in a moment of weakness, Dimmesdale is torn apart by his desires to confess to his sins, yet maintain his purity in the eyes of the townspeople.

He fears that he will be caught. However, the few townspeople that do hear his cry simply mistake it for a witch’s cry. Reverend Wilson walks near the scaffold and Dimmesdale believes that he will be discovered and questioned by the other Reverend. Believing himself to have committed the grave sin of adultery, Dimmesdale’s responsibility is to step down from his governmental position or at least admit his sin to the public. Instead, Dimmesdale hides his sin and actually uses Hester’s sin in his

Dimmesdale hides his adultery with Hester, from the townspeople whom he preaches to, to save his reputation. The weight of his guilt crushes him, and his health starts to decline, as he does not sleep most nights, he whips himself, tortures himself, and has burned a letter “A” into his chest for adultery: “His inward trouble drove him to practice more in accordance with the old, corrupted faith of Rome” (Hawthorne, 1999, p. 96). The great guilt Dimmesdale feels could be relieved by admitting to his sins and facing the consequences, but he punishes himself and this destroys him physically and mentally. If he admitted to his sins and took the weight of guilt that he laid upon himself he would be an outcast and punished by the townspeople, but he would be happier and in better health. At the end of the novel, Dimmesdale confesses on the scaffold while speaking to the town; he opens his shirt to reveal the letter “A” he had burned into his chest.

The guilt that plagues Arthur Dimmesdale, leads to the climax of the novel, in which Dimmesdale overcomes his inner conflict. Throughout the entire book, Dimmesdale has struggled with trying to reveal what he has done. At first he is to cowardly to do this, but eventually Dimmesdale realizes the only way to redeem himself is to confess his sins and repent. Knowing it is the only way to redemption, Dimmesdale goes before the whole town, with Hester and Pearl, and reveals his sin to the people. Dimmesdale’s

Arthur Dimmesdale is a fictional character written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 1850’s from the book, “The Scarlet Letter.” Arthur Dimmesdale went through great lengths of guilt and suffering throughout the book. He is a Puritan minister who had a child named Pearl, whose mother was Hester Prynne. They hide their relationship together in the years of Pearl growing up. Arthur Dimmesdale was the only Puritan out of four main characters in The Scarlet Letter. Dimmesdale knows that he has sinned in the very beginning of the novel, but kept all his feelings inside, letting the guilt overwhelm him until the end. When he committed adultery, he knew that what he did was wrong, but at the time he had only put his hand over his heart symbolizing that his sin pains him but only secretly. Dimmesdale believed that his sin and guilt has helped the sermons on Sunday and has helped him become a better minister. Although Arthur Dimmesdale knows he has sinned, he still refuses to confess to the church and accept his punishment. Dim-mesdale went through a lot of suffering from holding his guilt in because he was not allowed to confess. He promised Hester that he shall not confess knowing the consequences of committing adultery with Hester, who was a married woman. Guilt took over his life to the point where the mental pain and the physical pain brought him to death.