How Does Dimmesdale Show His Sins In The Scarlet Letter

Guilt, shame, and penitence are just a few of the emotions that are often associated with a great act of sin. Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale, a highly respected minister of a 17th century Puritan community, is true example of this as he was somehow affected by all of these emotions after committing adultery. Due to the seven years of torturous internal struggle that finally resulted in his untimely death, Mr. Dimmesdale is the character who suffered the most throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Mr. Dimmesdale’s ever present guilt and boundless penance cause him an ongoing mental struggle of remorse and his conscience as well as deep physical pain from deprivation and self inflicted wounds. The external influence of the members of

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

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, before the Scarlet letter, was a most beloved Reverend, but after the Scarlet letter, it wasn't that simple. After Dimmesdale commits adultery, he faces isolation from the townspeople, who all think he is innocent. With the townspeople, the isolation is more of an internal thing within Dimmesdale. As their pastor, Dimmesdale is still responsible for their preaching; so while The whole town is condemning Hester, they are getting their spiritual fill ups from the other person in need of equal condemnation. Dimmesdale is forced to put up a facade of his emotions from his townspeople so they will not grow suspicious. The quote "No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true."(145). Shows that Dimmesdale will eventually come out but, even after he admits to the adultery, the people to not believe it to be true.

Dimmesdale and Chillingworth both keep a secret, but these secrets affect them differently. Chillingworth keeps his identity and quest of revenge a secret, while Dimmesdale keeps his sin a secret. Chillingworth’s appearance turns more dark and evil in accordance to his secrets, while Dimmesdale punishes himself for his. Dimmesdale grows more and more delusional and rather insane as the story progresses, however only Chillingworth seems to notice, and speaking of, Chillingworth seems to revel in discovering Dimmesdale’s secret, for he seems to have found his

As time with Dimmesdale proceeds, Chillingworth realizes that Dimmesdale is likely the man who Hester cheated with. His suspicions are confirmed when he sees the letter on Dimmesdale’s chest, leading to Chillingworth torturing Dimmesdale. Chillingworth makes reference to an inner illness by stating “This is a sickness… in your spirit” (94). When Dimmesdale approaches the scaffolding at night in a state of delirium, he notices Chillingworth and in his unstable state says, “I hate him, Hester” (107). Along with the self-torture that Dimmesdale is putting himself through, Chillingworth is torturing him from afar, serving as a reminder of his heavy conscience.

Although stories usually revolve around a plot to teach the character, as well as the reader, a lesson, the characters themselves are there to show something or teach something. These characters have roles that they need to play. In The Scarlet Letter Dimmesdale's character is meant to show the reader what guilt looks and feels like.

Dimmesdale’s fatal flaws are his feeble character and lack of strong morals. He, like Hester Prynne, is lost in a moral wilderness, in which he cannot muster the strength to confess his sin. For several years, Dimmesdale concealed

In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne shows us an essentially legalistic Puritan society with its inhabitants adhering to strict moral codes, and punishing and isolating those who fail to conform to its religious, and social laws. To them, sin is sin: it has to be punished publicly and harshly. But, the narrator disagrees and throughout the novel, he emphasizes grace and forgiveness for sins through faith in a religious society. We can observe from our three main characters in the novel, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth their ability to forgive and not to forgive. Our protagonist, Hester Prynne, struggles to work against the discrimination of the Puritan community and her ill-fated scarlet letter- a letter A to symbolize

He is now going to Europe where the three can live without persecution of slanderous words and live without secrecy. Dimmesdale starts to climb mountain without the rope he needs to propel him to the top. He starts to curse a church member, he argues with an elderly woman, ignores a woman he just recently help save through the grace of God and even runs up to children and teaches them inappropriate, wicked words. Mistress Hibbins overhears all the commotion and asks if she can be Dimmesdale's escort the next time he enters the forest. Dimmesdale reaches his home and tells Chillingworth that he no longer needs his medical assistance. Chillingworth is afraid that Dimmesdale now knows the truth about him, but never asks him. Dimmesdale starts to write a sermon for Election Day that portray some of the events that occurred that day. Election Day has now begun. Everyone gathers in the marketplace to celebrate the installation of the new governor. Hester daydreams about the day where she will be able to live a normal life, where she can be herself and not a town icon, where she can love the man she truly feels a connection with. Her thoughts were interrupted when a sailor from the ship tells her that Chillingworth will be accompanying them on their journey because the ship needs a doctor on board. She looks up and there was Chillingworth, smirking, knowing that he completely

Dimmesdale is a Puritan minister of the church, and suffers throughout the book for his secret sin, which is he is the father of Hester's baby pearl. As Dimmesdale goes through his life this burden get more and more severe. As Chillingsworth states, “... he knew no friendly hand was pulling at his heartstrings…”(Hawthorne 155) said by schillings worth explaining that there is a dark force acting upon him for his crime, his secret sin. That satan the devil is acting on him for his secret sin. As Dimmesdale is talking to Hester, “...Hester, that wear the Scarlet Letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!...”(Hawthorne 173) said by DImmesdale to Hester explaining how he is affected by their secret sin compared to hers, where she openly confesses, he lets his build inside himself getting worse and worse, for their act of secret sin.

Hawthorne presents two apparent visages for Dimmesdale in “The Scarlet Letter”. In addition to the externally good, yet silently deceitful reverend, further analysis illustrates that Dimmesdale possesses three different personalities. In the city, Dimmesdale is perceived as a “Godly master” (55). A man who abides by his moral and religious obligations. In his interactions with Hester and Pearl, he is a coward. These actions derive from his jealousy of Hester Prynne, fear of repercussions, and the slandering of his name. With Chillingworth, he is a blind host. Dimmesdale is tormented physically and mentally until all that is left of him is the sin itself.

Dimmesdale’s guilt is intriguing, because he lets the guilt eat away at him for so long. But even though Dimmesdale’s punishment is his own toil with himself and not social banishment like Hester’s, he continues to suffer for both committing adultery and for not taking the blame. The narrator says about Dimmesdale’s guilt: “This feeble and most sensitive of spirits could do neither, yet continually did one thing or another, which intertwined, in the same inextricable knot, the agony of heaven-defying guilt and vain repentance” (1249). Dimmesdale is as guilty as Hester, if not more because he never admitted his crimes until right before he died. Hawthorne does not let the audience perceive that Hester is the only sinner in this story; he adds in sinful men to show that men and women are equal in the ways of

Firstly, In the Scarlet letter Dimmesdale is introduced as a famous minister who is loved by many, he is rather young, but seems to have health problems caused from a heavy guilt he holds because of a passionate night he had with Hester Prynne a married woman. This guilt destroys Dimmesdale internally as explained by Hawthorn in the following line found in chapter ten “better for the sufferer to be free to show his pain as, than to cover it all up in his heart” In this line Dimmesdale admits that it is better to be free of guilt by letting your sins be known rather to keep those sins hidden like he has done. The act of keeping his sins hidden and bottled up inside have destroyed him mentally.

Dimmesdale and Chillingworth both have secrets they’re keeping, Dimmesdale is keeping his secret, that he is pearls real father. Chillingworth has been torturing Dimmesdale for the past four years. Dimmesdale handles the situation harshly he really takes it hard on himself and begins punishing himself and his guilt eats him alive. Chillingworth tries to get Dimmesdale to confess his sin publicly and it really makes Dimmesdale worry and Chillingworth becomes scarier to him and he’s very terrified