Essay The Power of Secret Sin in The Scarlet Letter

Arthur Dimmesdale is a character portrayed in both the light and the dark by having passion for helping people yet by hiding his sin by holding “his hand over his heart” (Hawthorne 110). Even as a minister he struggled with the conflict of evil

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of the main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Sin strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into a demon.

First, Dimmesdale is minister and is the one to preach weekly sermons to the people of Boston. In his sermons he ministers that sinners will wither and drown in the guilt of their sin not by the wrath of God, but by the self-acknowledged shame and guilt. “ He had striven to put a cheat upon himself by making the avowal of a guilty conscience, but had gained only one other sin, and a self-acknowledged shame, without the momentary relief of being self-deceived.” (149) Outwardly Dimmesdale teaches that guilt will drown you, while inwardly he is the one that is drowning. His physical appearance is constantly getting paler and he is developing an illness, an illness from bearing his

Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne relays the theme of guilt using symbolism that is portrayed in the scarlet letter itself and in the main character’s daughter. The story follows the protagonist, Hester Prynne, who commits adultery with the town minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, producing the child she raises on her own named Pearl. Guilt is a common theme for the duration of the novel which covers all aspects of the shame each character feels. These particular dimensions of shame come specifically from different objects in the novel and what they represent.

Roger Chillingworth’s soul is immediately taken captive by revenge as soon as he finds out about Hester’s infedelity (I would go w infidelity). He is transformed into a devilish figure overcome by a passion to torture Hester’s partner in crime, Arthur Dimmesdale. Hawthorne shows Chillingworth’s evil intentions, “The intellect of Roger Chillingworth had now a sufficiently plain path before it…which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy” (Hawthorne 127). In The Scarlet Letter,

The Scarlet Letter is a novel about a Puritan woman who has committed adultery and must pay for her sin by wearing a scarlet “A'; on her bosom. The woman, Hester Prynne, must struggle through everyday life with the guilt of her sin. The novel is also about the suffering that is endured by not admitting to one’s wrongs. Reverend Mister Dimmesdale learns that secrecy only makes the guilt increase. Nathaniel Hawthorne is trying to display how guilt is the everlasting payment for sinful actions. The theme of guilt as reparation for sin in The Scarlet Letter is revealed through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of northeastern, colonial settings, various conflicts, and

Dimmesdale’s struggle is dark and his penance is horrifying as he tries to unravel his mystery. His cowardness is taking over him and is making him conduct actions that are painful for him. “His inward trouble drove him to practices, more in accordance with the old, corrupted faith of Rome, than with the better light of the church in which he had been born and bred. In Mr. Dimmesdale’s secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge. Oftentimes, this Protestant and Puritan divine had plied it on his own shoulders; laughing bitterly at himself the while, and smiting so much the more

Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, and Roger Chillingworth all committed sins that needed forgiveness. However, only Hester found what they were all searching for. They also were needing to bring it upon themselves to forgive themselves and others. That forgiveness was life or death to Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. They ended up in the grave.

Mr. Dimmesdale is so intensely overwhelmed with shame and remorse that he is feeling; he has started to become well known for his sermons. His ability to speak as a preacher is enhanced by the fact that he feels far more sinful than many sinners do in his audience. At times, Dimmesdale has even tried to tell his congregation about the sin he committed with Miss Prynne, however he does it always in such a way that they are led to believe that he is being modest. This in turn causes the reverend even more anguish, for he believes that he is also lying to his people. (Smith)

Dimmesdale continues to punish himself and soon his practices begin to become apparent in his features. He always has his hand clasped over his feeble heart and at all times, he appears to be ghostly pale and sickly. As the public that Dimmesdale preaches to notices that their beloved reverend is ailing more with each passing week, they attribute his condition to his perpetual devotion to the church. They had no idea that his own self-pity and his horrible feeling of shame was making him torture himself so that he looked the way he did. They viewed his acts as noble acts of devotion to God and looked upon him almost as a saint. This public veneration sickened Dimmesdale because it only reminded him of his dark secret and made him realize that he was

Dimmsdales sins affects his physical well-being, and his mental stability. Since he never publicly admits his sin, he has to keep his sins bottled up within him. He has no way to relieve himself of the burden of his sins, but to be shamed in public. He ultimately becomes a coward and he tortures himself . He was healthy before, but as the years go by, he becomes sickly, and he worsens his condition by abusing himself. Later on through the years, when he joins with Hester and Pearl in the forest , he becomes different, and when they decide what their plans will be, his health changes, and his energy seems as I it was back. He changes and transforms to another person. "The minister's own will, and Hester's will, and the fate that grew between them, had wrought this transformation. It was the same town as heretofore; but the same minister returned not from the forest." He changed to a new him.

Dimmesdale in the story has the sin of being the father of purl but does not have the courage to tell the towns people because he is afraid of losing his reverence. Fore to seven years have passed and Rev. Dimmesdale continues to live his life but his sin eats away at his fiscal appearance and the towns people think that the reason why he has bad health is because he works to much. Dimmesdale’s health is becoming worse but it’s ironic because he is becoming more popular in the town whit people respecting him and women want him to propose marriage to them. In the story it is interesting when Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold but nobody sees him except the two people that already know his secret which is heister prin and her little purl, all

In the stories of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the antagonist characters display parallel story lines through their searches for the enemy. Roger Chillingworth, the former husband of Hester Prynne and the antagonist of The Scarlet Letter, works against his wife in order to find her untold second lover. Frankenstein is a contrasting story in which an unnamed monster is the antagonist towards his human creator, Dr. Frankenstein. Yet despite quite different story lines, the two characters possess traits that exibit parallels between them. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth displays the startling passionate characteristics of an unwavering drive to seek out his foe, madness as his focus on his search takes over his entire being, and terrible anguish when his task is unexpectedly over, all of which are reflected in the daemon created at the hand of Dr. Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley 's novel Frankenstein.

In “The Scarlet Letter,” Hawthorne presents the consequences of sin as an important aspect in the lives of Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingsworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale. The sin committed, adultery, between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale had resulted in the birth of their innocent little girl, Pearl. This sin ruined the three main characters’ lives completely in different ways. With the sin committed, there were different ways the characters reacted to it: embracing the sin, concealing the sin, and becoming obsessed and consumed with it. With each reaction to the sin there were also different actions of redemption.

As far as the townspeople know, Hester is the lone sufferer for one sin committed by two people. No one would ever guess that their minister, alone, is guilty of three major crimes: adultery, hypocrisy, and neglecting confession. His heart becomes so heavy with guilt, remorse, and sorrow that he punishes himself by fasting for days, whipping his own back. Some believe that this is what caused the scarlet "A" to mysteriously appear on his chest. The guilt that is a direct result of concealing his terrible sins is literally destroying him. Hawthorne writes, "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." (196) Dimmesdale is learning this lesson the hard way. His inner-conscience longs to confess, but he has too much worldly wealth at stake. He successfully keeps his secret from the town until he realizes it has already killed him.