Punishment In Scarlet Letter

By revealing this small, hidden regret, he exposes Hester’s tortured state of mind. Unable to reach salvation in the town she desired to live in, she regretfully decided to leave and abandon her sorrows. The burden society placed on her with the scarlet letter was too demanding for her to handle any longer. Similarly, Arthur Dimmesdale was distressed from his ignominy. Afraid of societal repercussions, Dimmesdale had been “overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast” (102). Society’s extensive honor toward him exacerbated his pain, thus causing society to trap Dimmesdale; this prevented him from revealing his dark secret and reaching salvation. Additionally, he began to picture his surroundings as an obstacle designed to hinder his path to redemption. His shortcoming to reach salvation agonized Dimmesdale to the point where he was incapable of recalling “[any] text of Scripture, nor aught else, except a brief, pithy, and, as it then appeared to him, unanswerable argument against the immorality of

Chillingworth’s desire for revenge for Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter greatly conflicts his moral duty as a self-proclaimed physician in Puritan Boston. This revenge began once Chillingworth suspected Dimmesdale of having intimate relations with Hester, although he never confronted him. Dimmesdale’s physical and mental health began to deteriorate once Chillingworth relentlessly tormented him, conveying the significance behind internal guilt and poor external health. It was also quite ironic how Chillingworth was seen as Dimmesdale’s mentor to the public, and although he was a physician whose friend was in failing health, his credibility was never questioned. This revenge was fueled by the betrayal of Hester, who was Chillingworth’s wife before he claimed a new identity and persona. According to Chillingworth, Dimmesdale could never suffer enough for what he’d done unless he’d faced it publicly, but once he did, Chillingworth had nothing to motivate his devious acts. The repugnant acts committed by Chillingworth claiming to be provoking Dimmesdale’s confession are absolutely influential to his failing health and significance in the book, "Better had he died at once! Never

One night he drags himself up the scaffold steps and screams, hoping someone will find him. “It is done! The whole town will awake and hurry forth and find me here” (Hawthorne 99)! Dimmesdale wants to be found out. What makes him cowardly is the fact that he will night outright confess, but still complains about his internal wounds. As he stands on the scaffold Hester and her daughter, Pearl, walk by on their way home when Dimmesdale stops them and asks them to join him, “Come up hither, Hester, thou and Little Pearl… and we will stand all together” (Hawthorne 101). Dimmesdale, though he’s trying to understand what Hester felt, still refuses to stand there with them in the daylight. Dimmesdale is still just as fainthearted as

In the third scaffold scene, Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale reunite together on the scaffold. As others recognize who her secret lover is, the community perceives Hester as a sympathetic figure. When Hester is standing with Dimmesdale on the scaffold, he confesses his immoral actions and shows his version of the scarlet letter on his chest. After seven years the Reverend proclaims, “In the name of Him, so terrible and so merciful, who gives me grace, at this last moment, to do what---for my own heavy sin and miserable agony---I withheld myself from doing seven years ago, come hither now, and twine thy strength about me!” (226).

Members of the town praise the reverend, thinking highly of him and never assuming that he was involved with Hester. While Dimmesdale commits the same sin of adultery as Hester, it is contrastly displayed through his internal guilt and conflict. As Hester serves her punishment publicly, Dimmesdale remains anonymous as the father of Pearl, which creates suffering in itself. He even tells Hester to remain fortunate that her secret known, and that his own scarlet letter “burns in secret” (Hawthorne 147). Even though Reverend Dimmesdale has a better reputation than Hester, his ultimate resulting fate ends up to be worse.

As Dimmesdale has not been able to confess to his sin, he feels worse about himself. He tries in his sermons, but this is not understood by his audience, as they think it is simply a lesson. When he stands with Pearl and Hester on the scaffold at night, this is the first time he has “publicly” confessed to his crime; “[Hester] silently ascended the steps, and stood on the platform, holding little Pearl by the hand. The minister felt for the child’s other hand, and took it. The moment he did so there came a tumultuous rush of new life” (140).

Like Pearl, Chillingworth torments people on his quest for justice, but unlike Pearl, he has an inability to challenge the truth and maliciously desires to keep it hidden. Chillingsworth is an ideal example of Puritan conformity. He thinks that the sin is wrong and sinners should be punished. Therefore, when torturing Dimmesdale, he has “quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now, in this unfortunate old man, which le[ad]s him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal ha[s] ever wreaked upon an enemy, wanting to break him down”. He torments Dimmesdale with subtle yet extreme measures.

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

Dimmesdale is fearful as he does not want to reveal himself to the public, but rather have Hester reveal his name to the public because she shouldn’t feel, “pity and tenderness” for him. Continuing, he declares that it is worse to, “hide a guilty heart through life,” rather than admitting it to the public and stand on, “thy pedestal of shame.” Hawthorne includes this way of thinking in Dimmesdale because it contributes to the fact that he is morally ambiguous as he knows what he has done is bad, but doesn’t have the courage to admit his sin himself. In this moment, Dimmesdale endeavours at making himself feel ashamed as he talks about himself declaring, “what can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--compel him,” but notably it doesn’t force him. He proclaims that his silence will eventually force him to speak out, yet his fear and pride as a righteous minister takes over him which causes him to not reveal his name.

And while this is already a terrible thing, it was even worse for them because Dimmesdale was the towns reverend, Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, was still alive, and they lived in a very strict Puritan society. The result of their sin was that Hester became pregnant and had a little girl named Pearl, but she refused to tell the town officials who the father was. Because she would not confess who she had committed adultery with, she was forced to bear her punishment alone. She was to stand on the scaffold for three hours while everyone mocked and stared at her, and she had to wear a red scarlet “A”, on her chest as a symbol of her adultery. She was shunned by everyone in the town, mocked and chased by the children,

Dimmesdale understands the fact that he too will be ostracized in the way Hester is because he too has committed a great sin. He sleeps with Hester Prynne who happens to be another man's wife, Hester becomes pregnant with his child and is condemned by the townspeople. While Hester stands on the scaffold to receive the punishment for her crime, Arthur Dimmesdale asks her to reveal the identity of her fellow sinner, He states “If thou feelest it to be for thy soul’s peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer!”(Scarlet letter pg. 59) Hester Prynne could have revealed the identity of her fellow sinner to the public, however she refrains from this act because she doesn’t want to subject

1. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, the Scarlet Letter, it shows how one sinful act can impact someone's life in several different ways. Although one may think a sinful act would only lead to only punishment, it doesn't always happen that way. In this case, the crime that is committed was adultery, which almost gives away what it lead to. Hester Prynne's evil act had lead to the birth of a little girl, who was loved infinitely by her mother even though they were both shot down by society.

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is an overarching criticism of puritan beliefs and customs. He questions whether or not their punishment methods are justified through revealing the effects of said punishments on main characters and the ideology of true Christianity. Hypocrisy permeates the community of God’s “Chosen Ones” as the townspeople and clergy seem to lack forgiveness, love and mercy. Soon after the Puritans set foot upon their “New World”, everything was as it had been.

Dimmesdale’s secret closet…there was a bloody scourge [that] this Protestant and Puritan…had plied…on his own shoulders; laughing bitterly at himself the while, and smiting so much the more pitilessly, because of that bitter laugh” (Hawthorne 93). Dimmesdale feels so guilty for his sins he feels the need to punish himself because he is not receiving the retribution he feels he deserves. Therefore he tries to purify his own soul by self-flagellation. Chillingworth also feels Dimmesdale should be punished, but is doing so extremely subtly that Dimmesdale does not even notice. “[Chillingworth] could play upon [Dimmesdale] as he chose.

Hester Prynne’s ability to sustain her stability and strength of spirit is the express result of her public guilt and penance. She was Arthur Dimmesdale’s partner in adultery, but she is used by Hawthorne as a complete foil to his situation. Unlike Dimmesdale, Hester is both strong and honest. Walking out of prison at the beginning of the novel, she decides that she must “sustain and carry” her burden forward “by the ordinary resources of her nature, or sink with it. She could no longer borrow from the future to help her through the present grief” (54). Hester openly acknowledges her sin to the public, and always wears her scarlet letter A. In the forest scene, she explains to Dimmesdale that she has been truthful in all things except in revealing his part in her pregnancy. “A lie is never good, even though death threaten on the other side” (133). Even Dimmesdale himself realizes that Hester’s situation is much healthier than his own when he states, “It must needs be better for the sufferer to be free to show his pain, as this poor woman Hester is, than to cover it all up in his heart” (92-93). This life of public shame and repentance, although bitter, lonely, and difficult, helps Hester retain her true identity while Dimmesdale seems to be losing his.