Psychological Effects Of Hidden Sins And Public Shame

There is a time Hester asks him for help when the old minister tries to take Pearl away from her, she says “Thou wast my pastor, and hadst charge of my soul, and knows me better than these men can. I will not lose my child! Speak for me! Thou knows,—for thou hast sympathies which these men lack!—thou knows what is in my heart, and what are a mother’s rights, and how much the stronger there are when that mother has but her child and the scarlet letter! Look thou to it! I will not lose the child! Look to it!” (105). At that time there’s an opportunity that he could tell everyone the truth and stand up for them, but he chooses to hide it instead to admit what he has done and allow everyone to learn from his imperfection. He is the worst sinner because he is a coward that he decides not to confess to everyone even though he has so many opportunities.

While Hester tries to protect Dimmesdale by not giving the name of Pearl's father, she actually condemns him to a long road of

Hester's shame does become very influential in her life making her unable to express herself freely. "Hester Prynne might have repaid them all with a bitter and disdainful smile. But under the leaden infliction which it was her doom to endure, she felt at moments as if she must needs to shriek" (52-53). Hester's guilt has surfaced fully because when she wants to simply express herself, she is prevented from doing so due to her guilty conscience. She wants to take revenge on everyone that has passed judgment on her by giving them a disdainful smile, but she is fearful that she might start feeling guilty for doing such a thing. It seems Hester can live without any consequences of sin if she is able to suppress her anger, but she is actually being slowly isolated from the world. Living peacefully for Hester is slowly isolating her because she acts kind to others to avoid confrontations, which shows that she is afraid of the world and is actually trying to hide from it. Guilt is still the consequence that causes Hester to become isolated from the world around her, but there is another larger consequence which she is reminded of everyday.

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

Hester is somewhat, alienated because she would refuse to tell the name of the other adulterer. When she is released from prison and asked to stand on the scaffold, she is asked to tell the name of the other adulterer. Hester is in love, and because of that love, she chooses to stay in the town of Boston and has to always wear the scarlet “A” on her chest, so long as she lives in Boston. She, herself says this when standing in front of the people of Boston, "I might face his agony

Every day, he fears that his seemingly impervious secret will break free from the figurative restraints he has placed upon it. As the years go by, the guilt devours the holiness and purity that he is supposed to radiate to his fellow followers of God. It becomes blatantly evident that Reverend Dimmesdale is not a proponent of practicing what he preaches. For instance, when Pearl asks Dimmesdale if he will stand upon the scaffold with Hester and her, he declares that he will only do so “at the great judgment day” with God as the only witness (Hawthorne 127). This statement depicts his fear of revealing the truth, though that is what he preaches for his people to do, no matter the consequences. Dimmesdale is shielding his earthly self from the penalties that the exposé of his clandestine will entail, despite the double standard he is authoring to the community. Moreover, Dimmesdale refuses to allow “the daylight of the world to see [his] meeting” with his daughter and mistress (127). Throughout the novel, the daylight is a resilient symbol for the truth, which is why Dimmesdale fears to permit the light to see him dwelling in his secret. His name itself also plays into the symbol of light, as the first fragment of his name is “Dim”. This further juxtaposes the light/truth that the Reverend is supposed to be

Not being honest has its serious lethal consequences internally and causes confusion in the heart of who a person really is under the lies. In the novel, Dimmesdale is not only deceiving others by hiding the truth but is also deceiving himself which leads to him having inner confusion of his true nature. Hester and Dimmesdale are in the forest going over their plans to run away when

Abandoning Hester and her illegitimate daughter Pearl also augmented his problems. Forcing Hester to go and find work around town, an obviously hard task for a single parent.  He also abandons them emotionally and physically. He is rarely there when Hester and Pearl needed him.  Innocent little Pearl wonders why Dimmesdale is so afraid of public displays of affection, yet when they are alone, he takes notice of her and Hester. Talking to him, Pearl asks  "Wilt thou stand here with Mother and me, tomorrow noontide? (149),” a question whose answer is unclear for Pearl. In fact, the only way Hester and Pearl receive any kind of support from Dimmesdale is when Hester threatens to tell the truth about his sins.

Hawthorne expresses Dimmesdale’s emotions by portraying dark diction and suffering with phrases such as “miserable agony,” showing that Dimmesdale was unable to withhold his pain and agony that came with hiding his sin. “Miserable agony” portrays the feeling of pain and true suffering from internal causes, which in this case is his withholding his sin. The use of kinetic imagery also emphasizes the suffering of Dimmesdale. When Dimmesdale asks Hester to “twine thy strength about me,” he wants her to give him the strength to carry on. The connotation of “twine” indicates his weakness from his guilt, and the suffering that requires him to rely on others. This shows how Dimmesdale faces true pain and meaningful suffering because of his guilt and refusal to admit his sin, such as when he says that it is “for my own heavy sin,” showing how much it bears down on his soul. This guilt is also brought about when Dimmesdale suffers from physical and spiritual wounds from not admitting his guilt.

disgrace, contrasts with the pastor’s silent sin of adultery. When Hester became a symbol of sin

As the book opens, Hester is brought forth from the jail and walked to the scaffold. For the first time being seen in public named an adulterer, Hester shies from the public as they mock her. However, "She never battled with the public, but submitted uncomplainingly to its worst usage; she made no claim upon it, in requital for what she suffered; she did not weight upon its sympathies." (Hawthorne 140). Soon, it did not matter what other people thought of Hester because of her sin. She chose not to live with the humiliation, but she did have to live with herself.

    Dimmesdale on the other hand continues to suffer physically and mentally for the concealment of his sin.  Dimmesdale feels that he is safe from being condemned by Puritan society by concealing his sin, yet ironically, it eats away at his heart.  Ironically, a townsperson says to Dimmesdale, speaking of the searching out of sin, "methinks it

because of the dark secret he keeps hidden in what his parishioners think to be a miraculous white soul. Day after day his thoughts are taken over by his feelings of guilt and hypocrisy. "He longed to speak out, from his own pulpit, at the full height of his voice, and tell the people what he was. 'I, your pastor, whom you so reverence and trust, am utterly a pollution and a lie'" (Hawthorne 142). At this point it may seem that the Reverend might have an easier life if he, like Hester Prynne, bore a scarlet letter for all to see. Reverend Dimmesdale does in fact wear a scarlet letter on his chest, but it is hidden, just as the truth of his sin is hidden, from the eyes of the public.

realizes that his outside wants to seek forgiveness but his inside can not give up the positions that

Unbeknownst to the community of Boston, their favorite minister was actually Pearl’s father. Reverend Dimmesdale was a young and charismatic preacher who in the very beginning of the story asks Hester to reveal who Pearl’s real father is to the whole community. She refuses to give up the secret. From the beginning of the novel it is clear that Dimmesdale feels guilty for also being a part of Pearl’s creation and Hester’s punishment when he says, “I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer!” He clearly believes that the sin of adultery should be shared by the participants, but for a variety of reasons he does not come clean and instead internalizes his shame. Ironically Dimmesdale becomes an even better pastor as his guilt and shame deepens, his sermons are increasingly popular with his congregation. He openly proclaims to them that he is a sinner and that he has lied to them, but instead of being shocked they consider his proclamation of guilt to be an exaggeration for the sake of his sermon.