Theme Of Roger Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter

Later in The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale digs himself into a dark hole of shame and failure. At this point in the book Dimmesdale’s guilt has built up to an extreme amount he inflicts torment

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

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

Arthur Dimmesdale has continually suffered because of the sin he has committed. He is tortured by his only friend who is really his enemy. He grows weaker day by day because he will not confess his sin. He starves himself and whips himself. He has a daughter but no one can know. People look up to him and he does not want to let them down. If only people knew that he committed adultery with Hester Prynne. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter, the author writes, “While standing on the scaffold, in this vain show of expiation, Mr.Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at the scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his heart. On that spot, in very truth was, and there had long been,

Hester is publicly recognized because of the scarlet letter; as a result, she is liberated by it. Readers are told that “many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (146). While Hester’s strength is bolstered, however, Dimmesdale’s only diminishes, because he is forced to internalize his shame and despair. The various ways in which the minister tries to correct this misery are revealed halfway through the novel: “In Mr. Dimmesdale’s secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge…It was his custom, too, as it has been that of many other pious Puritans, to fast – not, however, like them, in order to purify the body…but rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance. He kept vigils, likewise, night after night…He thus typified the constant introspection wherewith he tortured, but could not purify, himself” (132). Through these means of self-harm, Dimmesdale acknowledges his tragic flaw, but he does nothing to redeem himself publicly. Dimmesdale is entirely unable to forgive himself for his sin, even when he is able to forgive Hester: “’I do forgive you, Hester. I freely forgive you now!’”

Dimmesdale is the minster of the town, which means that he has several responsibilities and he is surrounded by the idea that he should live without sin to be an exemplar of the town. This creates pressure for Dimmesdale because he understands the severity of the sin he has committed. He feels like a failure to his followers and that he is unfit to be the minster anymore and that his life has no more meaning since he betrayed God. The narrator states “…on a 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…”, which is exactly what Dimmesdale did. He refused to confess when Hester was on the scaffold which left him to hide is

               The fact that Dimmesdale is a hypocrite causes him to experience increased torment due to his guilt.  Dimmesdale beautifully illustrates Hawthorne’s point, because if he were not such a highly religious man, then he would not care about his crime.  However, he does care, and he inflicts torment on himself, including long periods of fasting. In addition to hours of staring at himself in the mirror, he could also be caught numerous times in his closet, whipping himself and burning the letter "A" on his chest.   Or he could be seen at the scaffold in the wee hours of the morning, practicing how he is going to confess the next day. Deluding himself by pretending that his

In the Scarlet Letter there are characters that are important to the novel; however there is one specific character that relates to the topic of the story is Arthur Dimmesdale. The character Arthur Dimmesdale is a respected minster in Boston. However even though, Arthur Dimmesdale is a minister and preaches against sin to his congregation, he commits the ultimate sin with a young married woman named Hester Pryne. For punishment Hester Pryne becomes pregnant and shunned from public society, Dimmesdale is forced to live with guilt and later in the novel dies from the same sin within his body. Critics that have read the Scarlet letter would argue that Dimmesdale is a weak or ennobled character because he didn’t tell the community of his sinful crime. Another characteristic that critics would agree on is that Dimmesdale was a hypocrite. Arthur Dimmesdale is a character that is weak and hypocritical to his own belief.

In his first speech Dimmesdale's purpose is to get Hester Prynne to confess who the father is. This accusatory purpose Dimmesdale conveys is trying to get Hester Prynne to confess but at the same time keep her mouth shut. "I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer" (Hawthorne 57). This quote shows that Dimmesdale asks Hester publicly the Who the father is so the Community does not get suspicious of the authority of Dimmesdale. In Dimmesdale's second speech his purpose changes from accusatory to remorseful. With seven years passing and Dimmesdale harming himself he wants to be free of the guilt of the secret. " It seemed, at this point, as if the minister must leave the remainder of his secret disclosed. But he fought back the bodily weakness- and, still more, the faintness of heart." ( Hawthorne 208). This quote shows that Dimmesdale is weakly fighting back the guilt of his secret and he can not take it anymore. He has had enough of living with the lie so he

Mr. Dimmesdale commits a sin but does not confess for fear of humiliation and hatred. By not confessing, he pays the price physically and emotionally. By physically hurting himself, he presumes it replaces the conflict of not exposing his true self to the community. He is held accountable for his actions at a personal degree of suffering. On the other hand, the community and townspeople are accountable for a high degree of the reverend’s actions. On the scaffold the night Mr. Dimmesdale stood with Pearl and Hester, he rejected holding his daughter’s hand in public because “...all the dread of public exposure that had so long been the anguish of his life had returned upon him; and he was already trembling at the conjunction...” (Hawthorne 149). He feels like he has to conform to society to be accepted, and it results in the failure of taking Pearl’s hand in public and divulging the truth. The townsfolk are more responsible for Dimmesdale’s actions because they create a life where wrongdoing is the ultimate sin, and forgiveness is omitted.

Dimmesdale’s battle with sin and guilt got the best of him in the long run. He wanted to have others forgive him before he would forgive himself. Dimmesdale lived in fear of his sin being announced and thought that hiding it would make the problem go away. He lived a hypocritical lifestyle of preaching about path the Lord has paved for you while he himself strayed from his path after he committed adultery.

Mr. Dimmesdale is an almost perfect example of the contrast between public and private truth in The Scarlet Letter. The young clergyman is often seen as saint by the public. Many of his sermons throughout the book bring dozens to Christ in the small town. The people of the town even began to say,“The saint on earth! Alas, if he discern such sinfulness in his own white soul, what horrid spectacle would he behold in thine or mine!”(Hawthorne 246). In private though, Mr. Dimmesdale is actually being eaten alive by the guilt that his sin with Hester gave him. Mr. Dimmesdale’s adulterous act caused

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book “The Scarlet letter” Nathaniel makes everyone question dimmesdale’s death, and if it was considered an accident or murder. A lot of people might believe that dimmesdale’s death was not to be a murder, however others might disagree on that theory. Chillingworth made Dimmesdale think about things that dimmesdale wouldn’t think of on his own. Chillingworth wanted to psychologically cause Dimmesdale pain and wanted him to think about all of the sins that he had committed and how it wasn’t a good thing for his to keep them from people and also to hide them from anyone. Of course if anyone nags you about something that you did and all of the sins that you had done, you would feel bad about yourself and would want to reveal all of your sins, well that was the situation with Dimmesdale and Chillingworth.

This concealed sin is the center of his tormented conscience. The pressures on him from society are greater than those on Hester because he is a man in high standing, expected to represent the epitome of the Puritanical ideals. It is ironic that Dimmesdale, who is supposed to be absolutely pure and urges congregation to confess and openly repent their sins, is incapable of doing so himself. He knows the hypocrisy of his actions but cannot bring himself to admit his deed publicly. In resentment of this he punishes himself physically - he is "often observed to put his hand over his heart, with indicative of pain" (ch 9). Dimmesdale's resistance to be true to himself gradually destroys his well being as well as Hester's, and although he eventually declares the truth, his resistance ends him.

Though Reverend Dimmesdale is to cowardly to reveal his sin, of secretly fathering Pearl, this is not to say that he does not feel the remorse of it. On the contrary, Dimmesdale is ridden with guilt. He cannot bring himself to reveal his actions, so instead he tortures himself in secret. Dimmesdale fasts till he almost faints, and whips himself till he bleeds. He is also haunted by Hester’s former Husband, Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth exacts revenge upon Dimmesdale, for impregnating his wife, by constantly trying to extract the truth from him. All of Dimmesdale’s pain, guilt, and shame are embodied in a brand on his chest that resembles the scarlet letter. The brand blazes causing Dimmesdale pain, and he believes it is an affliction sent by God. Throughout the book it is clear that Dimmesdale is feeling the retribution of his sin.