Mr. Dimmesdale's Feelings of Guilt and Shame in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s "The Scarlet Letter"

A reader may label Dimmesdale the purest of the sinners. Adultery, in the Christian world, is the one of the greatest sins a man can commit, second only to premeditated murder. In a Puritan society, it must be close to the same. Dimmesdale tries to purge himself of this evil sin by scourging and self-denial. However, he shies away from public confession, rationalizing the good he can instill in other men and women with his sermons. We find this illogical reasoning on page He endures Chillingworth's revenge and hatred while trying to preach what he doesn't practice. At his weakest point, Hester tempts him to cave in to the sin and do it all over again. Out of desperation to flee from the torture, he crumbles

This scene in the book makes the reader feel as though Dimmesdale’s salvation is a reality because of all the opportunities he had to confess his sin but didn’t until now. Also during this scene, Dimmesdale not only asks for God’s forgiveness for himself, but Chilling worth too because he discovered that Dimmesdale is Hester’s partner. "May God forgive thee!" said the minister. "Thou, too, hast deeply sinned!" (23.28-29) In this part of the book, Dimmesdale makes it appear that he and God have a type of an abusive relationship, but Dimmesdale thinks he deserves every bit of it. "God knows; and He is merciful! He hath proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man, to keep

Dimmesdale was forgiven by the people because they did not appear to be angry when he confessed. While the people were surprised, none of them looked at him angrily, but with pity. "to the people, whose great heart was thoroughly appalled yet overflowing with tearful sympathy, as knowing that some deep life-matter--which, if full of sin, was full of anguish

What is the worst thing you have done, and what impact did it have on your life? Did you feel guilty for those actions, and if you did, how did they impact and continue to impact your life? In the Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a character commits an action he sees as so deplorable the guilt leads to significant repercussion and, eventually, his death As the novel is set in the Puritan times of the US, the citizens who live in the small town are subject to extreme scrutiny and a harsh moral code. Thus, when Puritan minister Dimmesdale commits adultery, a cardinal sin according to Puritans, with a woman named Hester Prynne, he feels the weight of his sin pressing down on him. Over time, Dimmesdale’s guilt over his sin continues

Dimmesdale has committed adultery with Hester Prynne and the consequence for his sin is that the guilt that becomes apart of him. Reverend Dimmesdale's struggle to cope with his guilt causes him to do very harmful things to himself. " Mr. Dimmesdale thus communed with himself, and struck his forehead with his hand" (Hawthorne 217). Dimmesdale has become so enraged with his guilt that he gets violent and abuses himself. The guilt that Dimmesdale experiences is unlike any other, the lasting effect of his sin causes an internal hatred within himself and it makes him afraid of confessing his sin because he is embarrassed by his actions.

Hawthorne uses Reverend Dimmesdale as an illustration to embody the destruction of guiltiness as he was the individual who was in Hester’s sexual affair. Reverend Dimmesdale, who is depicted to be a vigorous believer in the Puritan faith and a leader that everyone commends. However, Hawthorne renders Reverend Dimmesdale’s character to be ironic, because he embraces the idea of being pure but has a sin that is obscured in the novel. With the sin of infidelity that Reverend Dimmesdale has perpetrated, he does not have a public shamming like Hester as she was disgraced on the scaffold. Instead, Hawthorne employs the idea of private guilt which deteriorates Reverend Dimmesdale slowly when he is reminded of his sin that has not been confessed to the community. Due to the fact of Reverend Dimmesdale dealing with his sin privately to himself, he has suffered immensely that has led to an emotional destruction and torturing himself. The guilt was remarkably overbearing for Reverend Dimmesdale that it provoked to self-punishment which consisted of vigils, scourging, and fasting. Not only did the author exemplify to the readers the self-punishments that Reverend Dimmesdale created, but Hawthorne ironically exhibits that his heath was deliberating deceasing due his guilt and secrecy. Therefore, Hawthorne exhibits a negative conflict

Years of carrying this guilt take a physical toll on Dimmesdale as “[h]is form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a melancholy prophecy of decay in it” (106). Just as Hester’s acceptance and repentance for her sin creates a halo around her, Dimmesdale’s repression of his sin causes his body to slowly die. As time progresses Dimmesdale continues to punish himself in private, but he reaches a point where he cannot bear to keep his crime a secret. In his sermons, the reverend begins to lament how he is a sinner, more sinful than all of his followers even, but, ironically, confessing his misconduct only makes the Puritans love him more. They believe that Dimmesdale is completely pure and that he only claims to be a miscreant to comfort his earthly followers.

His guilt changed his demeanor and the way he carries himself day to day, he was always “feeble and pale” (224), he couldn’t handle having two completely different identities. Even after giving himself a physical reminder on his chest, his mind still could not overcome the guilt and the lie he carries inside himself everyday. Every single day Dimmesdale walks with, “a great horror of mind” (134), for what he did not only himself, but to others, mostly Pearl and Hester. It made it even harder being the head of the Puritan church, because everyone looks up to him as angel God has sent to save the Puritan community from sin. Consequently, he commits one of the worst crimes a Puritan can commit, adultery, and he knows that the punishment for this is execution.

Hawthorne gave the name Dimmesdale to the town’s reverend because of how he would change throughout the story. Dimmesdale’s personality would fade the longer the story went on. Dimmesdale's personality faded due to him feeling guilty of his sins and Roger Chillingworth taking the life right out of him. Dimmesdale felt guilty for the multiple sins he committed throughout the novel. At the beginning, Dimmesdale felt guilty that he had committed adultery. Dimmesdale decided he was not going to confess his sin even though he knew it was the right thing to do. Instead of taking on his troubles, he bottled them up inside of him, making him feel even more guilty than he already did. Dimmesdale could never really rid himself of this guilt because he did not confess his wrongdoing. To make matters worse, Roger Chillingworth was assigned to be the physician of this sick man. Chillingworth tortured Dimmesdale and only made the man's condition worsen. Towards the end, Dimmesdale feared he had signed his name in the the devils black book. This was the final straw for Dimmesdale. It was not until the final scene where Dimmesdale had died that he finally felt at peace with his life.

Arthur Dimmesdale, is a puritan minister who has always been viewed as a positive and Godly figure to his parishioners. But within the depths of his soul, Dimmesdale has a deep dark secret he has been hiding for fear he would be banished from his puritan society. Dimmesdale is constantly living with the guilt of his actions and harboring feelings of being a hypocrite and a sinner. The weight he carries is so immense he is constantly beating himself up with negative thoughts and physical beatings he endured to himself. To make matters worse, his parishioners do not know about his sin and would likely be horrified to learn he committed such a sin. Dimmesdale is faced with the ultimate dilemma; tell the truth and deal with the consequences or

He smites himself with a “bloody scourge,” fasts “rigorously,” and keeps vigils “night after night” in order to purify his soul (Hawthorne 130). Dimmesdale thinks that by hurting himself, his sin will dissipate, and he will find a place with God. However, his self-punishment does not ease his health; in fact, his well-being seems to be deteriorating even more. Dimmesdale has forgotten that to obtain true repentance, the public has to know of his sin. Punishing himself in the darkness where no eyes can see him is totally useless.

The guilt brought forth by sin is hoped to be blotted out once redemption is reached and faith is reconnected by repentance. The human nature of sin is linked with guilt that is freed by finding humility which brings redemption. Hester is weighed down by the guilt of adultery and lives in darkness as the sun avoids her due to her sin. Hester reaches humility once she becomes true to herself and her actions, she no longer lives in guilt of her sin and is brought into the sun. Dimmesdale struggles with the guilt of concealing his sin. Revealing himself as the sinner of the world shows his humility and reconnects him to God.

Nathaniel Hawthorne does a tremendous job at developing his characters throughout “The Scarlet Letter.” He put a very unique set of characters, each with their own personality that is expected of them at the beginning of the story, but, by the end of the story the reader realizes that the same character acts in a way that the reader was not expecting, because it took the whole story to unfold. One of the main characters that will be explained in the following paragraphs is Arthur Dimmesdale. He was the preacher for the puritans in the story, and although he began the story as what seemed to be a common and thoughtful man turned out to be something very different.

Dimmesdale is an ordained puritan minister and is well educated. He is very devoted to god and has a philosophical turn of mind. He is very passionate of his religion. He had the principle conflict in the novel, and his agonized suffering is the direct result of his inability to disclose his sin. Dimmesdale is the only Puritan. One really cannot understand Dimmesdale or his dilemma without at least a cursory understanding of the Puritans who inhabited Boston at this time. As a minister, Dimmesdale has a voice that consoles and an ability to sway audiences. His congregation adores him and his parishioners seek his advice. As a minister, Dimmesdale must be above reproach, and there is no question that he excels at his profession and enjoys a

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale is a young clergyman who commits adultery with a young married woman who is in his congregation. It is believed that her husband is deceased and perhaps that is part of how they justify their sin. He speaks abjectly on the scaffold, but hidden in his words is a plea for Hester, his partner in sin, to expose him in his share of the guilt. As the years pass, he fights to confess it himself, but all the while, he fears being realized. Arthur Dimmesdale is a well-esteemed reverend who decays inside as he hides his sin until his physical decay, caused by his internal decay, brings him to death.