How Does Dimmesdale Change Throughout The Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne thinks that Hester should have revealed who the father was from the beginning of the story. Meanwhile she is still trying to adjust to the punishments she's been given. In order for Hester to be let off of the cruel punishment, they relied on her. By being able to share the punishment equally instead of just one individual. If she had revealed the father, Dimmesdale would have had to share the blame, or the community might have even understood since he is a person in power and the voice of the community. Instead, she was sentenced to an unfair punishment and had to give up her privileges as someone in the community. We are able to notice that throughout the story she is very loyal to those around her who she cares about. She puts those she is interested in first because it's a sign of respect. In all this, she never once put the blame on him or tried to force him to speak up. Hester wanted it to come out of his kind heart and the love he had for her. Although she was the only one to be there with Pearl and to be judged by many people she was still able to feel the love towards her child without question “In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and with a burning blush and yet haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, it is about a young woman named Hester Prynne, who has committed adultery and gave birth to a daughter named Pearl. As a punishment, Hester has to wear a cloth with a scarlet letter ‘A’ on her chest that stands for ‘Adulteress’ for all her lifetime. Meanwhile, Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, who has been missing for two years come back and decides to take a revenge on Hester’s lover. Throughout the novel, Chillingworth has discovered that a young minister named Dimmesdale is a Hester’s lover. Dimmesdale is the worst sinner than Chillingworth because Dimmesdale doesn’t have moral, he is a coward that decides to keep his secret, and he doesn’t have responsibility.

Mr. Dimmesdale’s conscience constantly brought his negative aspects to mind, and caused him to spiral into self hatred and misery. The overwhelming presence of guilt for his offense caused Mr. Dimmesdale unbearable suffering and general unhappiness in knowing that he had not only wronged God, but Hester and the entire community as well.

Dimmesdale has yet to reveal the truth, which, so far, has been devouring him,physically and mentally. Since this good reverend is so spiritual, he cannot reveal his truths to the town so simply. He is of the Puritan faith and being a follower of that, the sin of adultery is a very grand sin. The whole town would look down on him as if he were a hypocrite. Which in fact, he is, but his sin of adultery in that town would have been scoffed at just as Hester’s has. The reverend is so well liked by the townsfolk that

God does not like the sin of adultery. He does not like lying. He does not like hypocrisy. There are two roads that one can choose. In the end, what may seem like the easy way may have far greater consequences than the hard way. Arthur Dimmesdale chose the easy path and learned that the pain of guilt is far greater than the pain of shame.

Dimmesdale effectively locked up his sin within himself, successfully fooling almost every soul. It would be too simple and hardly true to conclude Dimmesdale is cowardly, just avoiding death. Dimmesdale continues on his regular life on the outside, cutting off most ties to Hester and Pearl. Absorbing himself God’s work, Minister Dimmesdale uses his sin to deliver powerful sermons. The sermons indulged Dimmesdale while he openly, though vaguely, publicly spoke about his sin, relieving some torture of not being able to confess. Regardless, the townspeople would soon after compliment him on

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.

The Scarlet Letter is a book filled with sins of many different kinds. There is lying, adultery, and transgressions throughout the novel. However, there is a man who consistently models all these sins together--Arthur Dimmesdale. He is guilty of lying to his people, encouraging a woman to cheat on her husband, and committing transgressions against God and man. For this, he has sinned the worst of all characters.

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

Dimmesdale is the character I chose, because he deals with his private child while being the minister in the town. This private sin is especially hard for him to come out with, because of his leadership and role in the town. The situation is eating him up inside, to the point where he starts beating himself, and doing several other things to harm himself. It not only took a toll on him, but also on pearl, the baby, and the mother, Hester. It had a worse effect on Hester than Dimmesdale, because Dimmesdale just let Hester take all the backlash for Pearl's birth.

He cowers in confidence by refusing to expose his sin and torments himself through starvation and whippings. The carving of the scarlet letter is a self-induced punishment manifested by the shame he feels and desires to release. The inscribed A signifies "the effect of the ever-active tooth of remorse." Dimmesdale and Hester are equally guilty of the same crime, yet denied his responsibility and left Hester to bear the blame of his punishment at "which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit."(ch. 18) As Hester was able to confront her sin and become ostracized from the Puritan community, Dimmesdale continued to be the respected minister. His selfishness, deteriorating health, and cowardice actions reflected the secrecy of his

Hester did an inexcusable sin, however she redeemed herself by doing kind acts throughout the town and was forgiven by the town and God. Some may argue that Dimmesdale wasn't forgiven due to the fact that he didn't confess to his acts, however the Scarlet Letter states “Dimmesdale leans on Hester for support and begins to confess ,calling himself the one sinner of the world.” This goes to show that Dimmesdale may in fact be forgiven.

At this point, it is unknown to the reader that the "fellow-sufferer" Reverend Dimmesdale refers to is himself. The Reverend says all this to make sure that no one realizes that he is a sinner as well. The Reverend is also speaking of the pain that he himself feels in his heart.

Mr. Dimmesdale efforts to confess the truth are very insincere. As shown in the story in chapter twelve where he heard pearl “Minister!” whispered little pearl. “What wouldst thou say, child?” asked Mr. Dimmesdale. “Wilt thou stand here with mother and me, to-morrow noontide?” inquired Pearl. “Nay; not so, my little Pearl!” answered the minister…” These lines from the story show that Dimmesdale doesn’t want to tell the truth to the the public eye.

Hester and Dimmesdale have both committed adultery, therefore sinning. They both suffer and take their punishment in different ways. Hester is publically humiliated, and therefore suffers. Despite her sinning, she continued to do her job, which was needlework. She did charity work by making clothing for the poor, and even though they did not return the compassion she continued her work regardless of her treatment. Dimmesdale suffers internally with his guilt, but is not punished publically like Hester is. He is still viewed as a good minister and the puritan society continues to listen and worship with him. Another difference between these two characters is that Hester does not act out and takes her punishment and shunning with grace. Dimmesdale has plenty of chances to admit his sin and rid himself of the guilt. He chooses not to many times, therefore suffering more than necessary. This