Minister Dimmesdale: A Hero

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale takes the easy way out and does not tell the community that he is the one that committed adultery with Hester Prynne, which led to more pain than he saved. Him and Hester Prynne committed adultery together and as a result of that, they have a

Reverend Dimmesdale was a renowned, prideful man stricken with sin and extreme guilt.  From the time Hester and Dimmesdale made love, he was grievous of his sin but he also felt a great love towards her.  Dimmesdale's stubborn pride troubled him greatly, and although he tried many times, he could not confess his sin to his religious followers.  Dimmesdale felt guilt so strongly that he scourged himself on his breast and patterned an “A” into his own flesh, yet he could not confess his sin until his grief grew so great it caused him to perish.  Reverend Dimmesdale's sin was greater than Hester's because he let his pride conflict with his repentance, and let his life be ruined by his anguish.

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

A hero is a person noted for brave acts or goodness of character. A person who face the danger and combats the evil. Heroic leaders have the purpose of achieving the goal, regardless of the challenging difficulties. Often sacrificing their own personal concerns for a greater good Some qualities are passion, integrity, honesty, confidence, patience, selflessness, courageous, and humble. An example of a hero is John Proctor. He is a tormented man. He believes his affair with Abigail irreparably injured him in the eyes of God, his wife Elizabeth, and himself. True, Proctor did surrender to sin and commit adultery; however, he lacks the capacity to exonerate himself.

Dimmesdale has a largely different approach to dealing with his sin. Arthur Dimmesdale handles his terrible guilt by concealing it to himself. To overcome it he would whip himself, and take long walks into the forest. Dimmesdale’s act of concealing his guilt shows that he is not brave enough to tell all and there for he must live fearfully and cowardly. This guilt he has chose to endure is much worse than any shame he would have felt had he just confessed his sin of adultery with Hester. Since he was a moral leader in his town he felt an obligation to keep it a secret but like in many cases where guilt is concealed, the sinner eventually reasons enough to confess. Dimmesdale does the same and confesses his sin to the townspeople. “He longed to speak out from his own pulpit, at the full height of his voice, and tell his people who he was.”

Minister Arthur Dimmesdale is the young man Hester produced a child with. Even though “he loved the truth, and loathed the lie”,  Mr. Dimmesdale was terrified at the thought of being shamed like Hester was (131).  All of the town’s people adored him and he did not want to let them down. The minister decided to keep his sin locked up inside himself until it killed him from the inside-out. He did not want the people who look up to him to see him as an evil doer. Dimmesdale was repressed in the sense that he kept all his pain locked up and would never let anyone touch the key. The thought of the town detesting him for his mistake led to “the health of Mr. Dimmesdale…[beginning] to fail”(109). He became so afraid of what his peers would think of him he hid his true self.

They were viewed as more critical and important to the community than doctors or lawyers. Dimmesdale was seen as a true priest and true religionist which explains just how rigid the framework that Dimmesdale was imprisoned by. His religious beliefs and moral caused him a great deal of pain, unlike his co-sinner, Hester Pryne. While it can’t be said that Hester didn’t feel the effects, it can be argued that Dimmesdale punished himself worse than Hester was punished by the hypocritical society. Hester was not a member of the clergy and her sin was out in the open, whereas Dimmesdale had to live in secret with his sin, with no one knowing what he did. The framework and sin present a conflict of morals for Dimmesdale. On the one hand, all he wants to do is get the burden of the sin off his back and confess, but the framework and his beliefs restrict him from doing so. What results from this is a deep internal struggle suffered by Dimmesdale that causes his health the deteriorate quickly. Not only does the framework hurt Dimmesdale, it hurts those in the community, specifically Hester and

From the very beginning, Reverend Dimmesdale is perceived by his congregation as being very afflicted by this whole Hester Prynne scandal. The narrator can also come off as a little sarcastic in this passage referring to the pastor as “godly” when one usually associates the profession with a God-bidding man.

What can thy silence do for him except it tempt him-yea, compel him as it were to add hypocrisy to sin?” is an extremely ironic quote. Dimmesdale is being a complete hypocrite in stating this. He talks about how you shouldn 't hide from your sin or hide guilt but that is exactly what he is doing. He is to afraid to tell anyone about what he did and constantly hurts himself because of this. Hester protects him because she wouldn 't accomplish anything by telling. She should protect him because of the fact that she wouldn 't gain anything my telling on him. Dimmesdale would just end up being hung by the community. Her adultery can 't be justified no matter what. She clearly committed it and easily could have avoided it. It still would make a difference if she didn 't love Dimmesdale because than should probably wouldn 't have committed adultery with him. Even if she did choose to commit adultery with him, the lack of love she feels would allow her to easily tell on him.

Two members of the community, Reverend Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne, have an affair, which produces a child that is named Pearl. Hester is convicted for the crime of adultery but Dimmesdale is never implicated. She is jailed for her crime and is eventually brought out for public humiliation by being put onto a scaffold and questioned about the identity of the father, which she is unwilling to do. Mr. Dimmesdale tries to help her keep silent by telling the inquisitor, Reverend Wilson, “Wondrous strength and generosity of a woman’s heart! She will not speak!”(21). This is near the beginning of the story when Dimmesdale has yet to feel guilty for what he has done. And of course, he does not want the truth to be revealed because he is the reverend. Guilt does not always affect a person right away, but may make them cover it up, as described in this

Puritan society is also portrayed in a negative light when observing its effects on Dimmesdale. Arthur Dimmesdale is praised by many in his community as a holy figure and thus a leader, however, he is just as much a sinner as Hester, since together they committed adultery. The fact that he hides this secret in order to preserve this false image of himself shows how much he cares about how he is viewed by society. While many would argue that he does this out of his own free will, there is no doubt that he feels pressure from society to keep his past hidden and maintain this holy facade. Once Dimmesdale dies, some townspeople “affirm that the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had begun a course of penance … by inflicting a hideous torture on himself” (Hawthorne 230). When they see the letter branded on Dimmesdale, they are shown how he has been tortured by himself and by Chillingworth, as a result of the agony society put him through in hiding his secret of having committed sin. This instance shows how, in a deterministic society, even those viewed as the

Hester and Dimmesdale had committed adultery and that is a sin. Under the commandments of God adultery is a sin. “ It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy… “(50). In Puritan society, adultery was seen as something the community and two people shared so the adulterer was exposed. Hester Prynne also doesn’t admit to committing adultery. “ I will not speak!... And my child must seek a Heavenly Father ; she shall never know an earthly one “ (65). Hester yells at the crowd

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.

All throughout the novel, he was too fearful to confess the truth. He knew that the sin, he and Hester committed, was wrong, he knew that letting Hester take the blame for him was wrong too. Moreover he did not have the courage to take the criticism. “Thou wast not bold!-thou wast not true!” (pg. 141) That’s what Pearl, a little girl, says to Dimmesdale. It is interesting how Hester took all the consequences just like Jesus took ours. Dimmesdale with one of the best reputations contrarily she with the scarlet letter on her bosom could not even walk through the town without people looking down on her. The society puts Dimmesdale high up with not much effort; on other hand Hester had to work hard to be seen as Able. “They said that it meant ‘Able’; so strong was Hester.” Hester was set free and the wrath of god wasn’t on

The wrong choice that Hester and Minster Dimmesdale choose was one that is a sin. That sin is not to commit adultery. Adultery is voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not his or her spouse. In the bible it says” The penalty is death for both guilty parties: "And the man that committeth adultery with another man 's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor 's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death" (Leviticus 20:10) Minister Dimmesdale made more wrong choices then Hester he shouldn’t have taken advantage of her in my eyes. She went to him for help seeing how she was in a new place all by