Scarlet Letter Hester's Downfall

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

He continually makes excuses to justify his wrongdoings and compares himself to others. He explains to Hester “We are not… the worst sinner in the world. May God forgive us both! There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated… the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!” (TSL 176). He sees the wrong in Chillingworth’s heart and turns to criticizing that rather than taking ownership over his own life. He sees the relatively worse intent of another as justification for his faults, even though he knows, on some level, that he is still in the wrong. Eventually, however, Dimmesdale recognizes that the reason for his anguish is his secrecy, so he decides to admit his secret to his fellow townspeople. Dimmesdale ultimately reveals “I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with this woman ... Lo, the scarlet letter which Hester wears! Ye have all shuddered at it! ... But there stood one in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye have not shuddered!” (Hawthorne, TSL 227). He cannot live with the guilt of lying to others about his equal culpability as Hester. Dimmesdale knows that the only means to find peace is to be completely

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.

Dimmesdale doesn’t tell anyone that he’s Hester’s lover and when given the chance to admit his sin, he let it go so many times . 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.

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

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

Dimmesdale effectively locked up his sin within himself, successfully fooling almost every soul. It would be too simple and hardly true to conclude Dimmesdale is cowardly, just avoiding death. Dimmesdale continues on his regular life on the outside, cutting off most ties to Hester and Pearl. Absorbing himself God’s work, Minister Dimmesdale uses his sin to deliver powerful sermons. The sermons indulged Dimmesdale while he openly, though vaguely, publicly spoke about his sin, relieving some torture of not being able to confess. Regardless, the townspeople would soon after compliment him on

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

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.

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,

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

In the beginning of the novel in "The Market Place," Dimmesdale urges Hester to reveal him as Pearl's father because he could not bring himself to say it himself. Despite the extreme guilt displayed on the scaffold at night with Hester and Pearl, Dimmesdale is not able to bear himself to face his sin in public. Even in "The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter" he does not directly confess, but drops obvious hints that the Puritan could not pay attention to the world around them and only see what they want to see. The highly respected reverend is considered the most sacred in the society and for someone like him to commit such a sin would devastate the people and result in complete turmoil. Not only does the reaction of the society play in the mind of Dimmesdale, he also has personal reasons as well. "She thought of the dim forest, with its little dell of solitude, and love, and anguish, and the mossy tree-trunk, where, sitting hand in hand, they had mingled their sad and passionate talk with the melancholy murmur of the brook. How deeply had they known each other then! And was this the man? She hardly knew him now!" describes how two-faced Dimmesdale

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

The book “The Scarlet letter” is a story that is based on the theme of adultery and the consequences of one's actions. It starts off by introducing the setting of the story then with the characters gradually as you get deeper into the book. It is based on the scarlet letter ‘A’ it means to be connected to the sin behind the ‘A’ during the time being shamed and being the odd one out in the center of attention. The main character of the story is Hester Prynne, a woman who represents adultery and the story describes and talks about her life from when she was in prison and shamed until the day she passes away and is buried by the father of her child, Pearl. The man who is the father of the child is someone she still loves, Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout