Scarlet Letter Hester's Downfall

In a daze, confused and hurt, Dimmesdale wanders to the place where seven years ago Hester had stood clutching their child to her bosom, to the scaffold where he should have stood beside her all those years ago. While standing on the scaffold, his shirt open revealing his own scarlet letter to the world, he looked up at the pulpit where he had stood all those years ago and realizes the hypocrisy of his past actions. He knew that he was no closer to God than Hester, if anything he was far lower than she was, for she had the courage to admit to her sins and to accept her punishment and make the best of it.

Hester and Dimmesdale begin talking in the next chapter. The way that Hawthorne writes their conversation you can almost feel the love that both Hester and Dimmesdale feels toward each other. As their conversation grows deeper Dimmesdale asks Hester if she founds peace, she replies by looking at the scarlet letter, which is a symbolism on how Hester as if she will never find peace as long as she wears this letter, when she returns the question Dimmesdale respond by saying he is miserable. I feel as though Dimmesdale will always be miserable no matter how much charity work he does at the church, the guilt of being a hypocrite is eating him alive. All Dimmesdale wants is a friend or an enemy that knew his secret. When Hester tells Dimmesdale about Chillingworth and how he is her husband I could not help but snicker. His ignorance is astonishing, even the puritans realized that Chillingworth was becoming wicked. Dimmesdale proclaims that he can no longer live under the same roof as Chillingworth, which is when Hester suggest moving back to

From the start, Dimmesdale did not want to live with the consequence of his sin. To begin with, he must of told Hester not to tell anyone about his sin, because on the scaffold, she will not tell anyone (pg. 64). Clearly, Dimmesdale was afraid of the justice and the shame that would follow. He thought that if no one knew, he could

Dimmesdale, before the Scarlet letter, was a most beloved Reverend, but after the Scarlet letter, it wasn't that simple. After Dimmesdale commits adultery, he faces isolation from the townspeople, who all think he is innocent. With the townspeople, the isolation is more of an internal thing within Dimmesdale. As their pastor, Dimmesdale is still responsible for their preaching; so while The whole town is condemning Hester, they are getting their spiritual fill ups from the other person in need of equal condemnation. Dimmesdale is forced to put up a facade of his emotions from his townspeople so they will not grow suspicious. The quote "No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true."(145). Shows that Dimmesdale will eventually come out but, even after he admits to the adultery, the people to not believe it to be true.

Indeed, Dimmesdale longs to speak out that secret, and lighten the burden on him. Why, then, does he not? Dimmesdale, in his own words, answers thus:

Dimmesdales’s sin of being a co-adulterer has a devastating affect on his mind, affecting him both physically and mentally. He was afraid of revealing his sin to the public, and lets Hester take all the blame. Some of the townspeople believed that Hester “has brought shame upon [the townspeople], and ought to die” (Hawthorne 49). She was disgraced and isolated from the rest of the townspeople, while Dimmesdale himself became more and more popular, as he kept on delivering more and more powerful sermons. Hester had to live a life of pain and misery, while Dimmesdale was not a part of that pain, the pain of having to suffer from being secluded by the townspeople. He also never tried to ease Hester’s struggles by helping her raise their child,

However he is too weak and cowardly to confess, so he thrusts the responsibility to reveal him on Hester. He asks her “to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer!...Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy 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--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin?”(Hawthorne 70) In this quote, Dimmesdale does not only demonstrate the weakness he feels and his fear of confessing, but also his desire to confess. These conflicting emotions only serve to increase his guilt, but he is not yet willing to confess himself. Thus, he is not only imploring Hester to confess for him, but also describing his emotions in the process. He clearly believes that confessing is preferable to living in guilt and that hiding is only making him a hypocrite, especially due to his status in the Puritan community. However, he still does not confess. While Hester at the time is on a platform in front of the town, surrounded by light and the sight of the other Puritans with her secrets exposed, Dimmesdale is not in the spotlight. He still has his secret hidden and is seen as admirable by the people. His refusal to confess could be due

In the event of any natural disaster, the outcome of the unforeseen predicament is impossible to predict. When faced with this situation, a parent’s first instinct is to protect their children. However, the parent’s fear could gain control, preventing an escape from the storm. When given the choice to be conquered by his version of mother nature or abandon the storm completely, Dimmesdale failed to escape due to his cowardice features. Although he eventually confessed to his sin, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character, Arthur Dimmesdale, proved to be weak through denying his responsibilities, causing him, and all those involved, to endure his consequences.

Dimmesdale needs to feel forgiven by all the townspeople that he misled and he will do anything to get that forgiveness. Dimmesdale is with Hester on a platform in front of the townspeople he begins to say there is someone among them as guilty as Hester he then “With a spasm, he tore his minister’s robe away from his breast. It was revealed”(Hawthorne 23). Dimmesdale finally got to do what he wanted to do all along and take the soul crushing guilt off of his conscious and he got to do that with his last breathes. Dimmesdale get this off of his chest in a way to get the forgiveness he wants but Hester is looking for a different type of forgiveness. Hester wants forgiveness but not from the townspeople but she wants it from Dimmesdale for a different reason. Hester feels guilty for her dealings with Chillingworth and wants Dimmesdale's forgiveness when she say this “Let God punish! Thou shalt forgive!"(Hawthorne

He is acutely aware of this, and wants to confess more than anything. He goes as far as to stand out on the scaffolding on which Hester first displayed the letter, hoping someone will see him and make the connection. He even tries to get Hester to confess his name, begging her to “speak out the name of the thy fellow-sinner...for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand...on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart throughout life”. (65) Dimmesdale finds himself powerless to dispel the lie.

In the twenty-second chapter of The Scarlet Letter, the occupants of the town are gathered for the Election Day speeches. Hester and Pearl watch as the clergyman, the soldiers, and the magistrates, among many others, begin speaking. Among the many authority figures, Hester and Pearl see Dimmesdale marching along with an unusually positive demeanor. His strange behavior makes it difficult for Hester to recognize him and brings about unease. This is shown when “Pearl either saw and responded to her mother’s feelings, or herself felt the remoteness and intangibility that had fallen around the minister,” (215) before asking her mother if that was the Dimmesdale that kissed her by the brook. This shows Hester’s confusion by Dimmesdale’s behavior

In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale is instrumental in developing Nathaniel Hawthorne’s theme that penance while in the shadows is ultimately fruitless. From the start of the novel, it is clear Dimmesdale is intelligent enough to understand that repentance in darkness is worthless. While interrogating Hester Prynne in the market place, Dimmesdale tells her that by revealing who her fellow sinner is, she is saving him from hiding “a guilty heart through life” (Hawthorne 60). Although it seems that Dimmesdale makes this statement because Mr. Wilson has directed him to appeal to Hester, he secretly wants her to reveal his sin to the public. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne portrays Dimmesdale as a weak hearted and cowardly man who is

He says that she should “Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him” (Hawthorne, 134) and should reveal who the man is even if he will have to “step down from a high place” (134) because being ridiculed by the community will be better “than to hide a guilty heart through life” (134). By revealing that Dimmesdale is the father, Hester could have prevented the future in which Dimmesdale dies. By revealing who he is, the community would ridicule him, but he would still be able to live happily with Hester and Pearl. By not disclosing his relation to them, Dimmesdale is forced to carry the secret alone, while Hester has Pearl to accompany her through the hardships she will face because of the so-called crime she had committed. He wishes for Hester to inform everyone of whom he is to her, because he cannot bring himself to do it, he acknowledges that if Hester

Ironically, Dimmesdale says it would be best for her to reveal the sinner now if front of everyone instead of having that man suffer for years to come with the burden of his sin. This is exactly what happens to Dimmesdale himself in the forthcoming of the story. Although Dimmesdale pleads for Hester to speak the truth, she refuses to. Hester is forcing her will upon Dimmesdale at this moment telling him that he

The Scarlet Letter: a well-known novel throughout the world. A wife waiting for her husband to come back home. A woman who commits adultery. A woman who, as a result of her adultery, gives birth to a child. This woman, known as Hester Prynne, pays the price and must wear an embroidered scarlet letter ‘A’ on her bosom for life. The consequence Hester must pay haunts her for life. In the beginning of the novel it becomes clear to readers the reason the novel acquired the title The Scarlet Letter. All of the events that take place throughout the entirety of the novel are a result of Hester’s adulterous behavior. If Hester’s adulterous behaviors were nonexistent, Pearl would not have been born and Arthur Dimmesdale would not suffer or feel guilty