How Does Nathaniel Hawthorne Use Forgiveness In The Scarlet Letter

Without an honorable reputation a person is not worthy of respect from others in their society. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the struggle to shake off the past is an underlying theme throughout the novel. Characters in this novel go through their lives struggling with trying to cope with the guilt and shame associated with actions that lost them their honorable reputation. Particularly, Hawthorne shows the lasting effect that sin and guilt has on two of the main characters in the book: Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale.

Dimmesdale’s battle with sin and guilt got the best of him in the long run. He wanted to have others forgive him before he would forgive himself. Dimmesdale lived in fear of his sin being announced and thought that hiding it would make the problem go away. He lived a hypocritical lifestyle of preaching about path the Lord has paved for you while he himself strayed from his path after he committed adultery.

Every character in the novel The Scarlet Letter, deals with things that are done to them, and things that they do to themselves differently. The four major characters that have to seek forgiveness and forgive others are Roger “Chillingworth” Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, and Pearl. Some gain forgiveness from others, some refuse to give forgiveness, and others are tortured by not being able to forgive themselves. This affects them all in different ways, positive and negative.

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.

Reverend Dimmesdale is a character foil of Hester Prynne. Whereas she represents repented and forgiven sin he does not. Dimmesdale cannot forgive himself and tortures himself because of it. He does this by holding vigils and famines. This causes him to be weak and frail, whereas Hester is strong and thusly causing her to be the strength of Dimmsdale both mentally and physically. Together Hester and Dimmesdale plan to leave Boston to return to England, but Dimmesdale dies due to his constant torture.

Arthur’s secret sin involving Hester Prynne has caused him to suffer “under bodily disease,” by the “black trouble of the soul,” (Hawthorne 128.) Dimmesdale believes that his sin

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne paints a picture of two equally guilty sinners, Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale, and shows how both characters deal with their different forms of punishment and feelings of remorse for what they have done. Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale are both guilty of adultery, but have altered ways of performing penance for their actions. While Hester must pay for her sins under the watchful eye of the world around her, Reverend Dimmesdale must endure the heavy weight of his guilt in secret. It may seem easier for Reverend Dimmesdale to live his daily life since he is not surrounded by people who shun

The conclusion of any book proposes an outstanding question, the Scarlet Letter questions the condition of forgiveness regarding the characters. Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale inhabit forgiveness, however, it does not envelope Roger Chillingworth. Foremost, in order to attain forgiveness, you must take responsibility for what you’ve done. Perceiving this, Pearl and her parents, kick-started their trek to genuine, authentic forgiveness.

Dimmesdale is the minster of the town, which means that he has several responsibilities and he is surrounded by the idea that he should live without sin to be an exemplar of the town. This creates pressure for Dimmesdale because he understands the severity of the sin he has committed. He feels like a failure to his followers and that he is unfit to be the minster anymore and that his life has no more meaning since he betrayed God. The narrator states “…on a pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him…”, which is exactly what Dimmesdale did. He refused to confess when Hester was on the scaffold which left him to hide is

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.

The relationship between Dimmesdale and Hester in The Scarlet Letter demonstrates that forgiveness allows individuals to heal their lives and emotional wounds. When Arthur Dimmesdale exclaims that he would not forgive Hester for hiding Roger Chillingworth’s true identity for seven years, Hester replied, “Thou shalt forgive me! Let God punish! Thou shalt forgive” (Hawthorne 133). By receiving forgiveness and compassion from another sinner, Hester had the capability to forgive herself for her own iniquities.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter he raises the argument of whether or not the characters are forgiven. Only one character is without a doubt forgiven and that is Hester Prynne. However this raises the question of whether Hawthorne is forgiven as well. I believe that Hawthorne is forgiven for the same reason as Hester which is that he owned up to the sins that were committed.

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne the characters, Hester and Dimmesdale both committed sins that are considered horrible in their society and they both had moral consequences related to whether or not they tried to redeem themselves. Hawthorne says that redemption is earned by expressing your sins.

In order for any sin to be forgiven the act of penance must occur. The voluntary self-punishment inflicted as an outward expression of repentance for having done wrong, is known as penance. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter two prominent characters in this literary

Mr. Dimmesdale’s strong ties to his Puritan faith cause him to commit endless acts of severe penance as retribution for his sin, only bringing him continuous physical suffering and the longing for absolution. Dimmesdale’s faithfulness leads him to beg for God’s forgiveness through his actions in the hopes of saving his soul and avoiding some of the punishment he will likely bear in the afterlife. His penitence and fear of public exposure cause Dimmesdale to whip himself harshly in the closet and to fast “…rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance” (136). Because of the lack of courage within his character, Mr. Dimmesdale turns to private suffering rather than public shame as a means for his atonement. These excessive acts of penance resulted in his suffering of intense physical and mental weakness, and causing him to become frail in overall spirit. In his most extreme act of repentance, Mr. Dimmesdale stooped to self-mutilation by carving the letter A into his own chest to match