How Does Dimmesdale Change Throughout The Scarlet Letter

Roger Chillingworth is a vile man who hides his disgrace of having a disloyal wife and finds pleasure in tormenting the poor Arthur Dimmesdale. When he comes to town at the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth makes Hester promise not to tell anyone that he is her real husband.“ ‘Breath not, to any human soul, that thou didst ever call me husband!’…’because I will not encounter the dishonor that besmirches the husband of a faithless woman…’”(Hawthorne 52-53).

The setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet letter” is crucial to the understanding of the event that takes place in the story. The setting of the story is in Salem, Massachusetts during the Puritan era. During the Puritan era, adultery was taken as a very serious sin, and this is what Hester and Dimmesdale committ with each other. Because of the sin, their lives change, Hester has to walk around in public with a Scarlet Letter “A” which stands for adultery, and she is constantly being tortured and is thought of as less than a person. Dimmesdale walks around with his sin kept as secret, because he never admits his sin, his mental state is changing, and the sin degrades his well-being. Chillingworth

This scene in the book makes the reader feel as though Dimmesdale’s salvation is a reality because of all the opportunities he had to confess his sin but didn’t until now. Also during this scene, Dimmesdale not only asks for God’s forgiveness for himself, but Chilling worth too because he discovered that Dimmesdale is Hester’s partner. "May God forgive thee!" said the minister. "Thou, too, hast deeply sinned!" (23.28-29) In this part of the book, Dimmesdale makes it appear that he and God have a type of an abusive relationship, but Dimmesdale thinks he deserves every bit of it. "God knows; and He is merciful! He hath proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man, to keep

When Pearl kisses Dimmesdale, it was as if he had forgiven himself. Later, it shows as if the people had forgiven Dimmesdale for his actions, for they buried Hester next to him. Dimmesdale couldn't forgive himself unless the cause of his guilt forgave him as well. For his guilt/conscience to forgive him, he had to own up to his sin. I believe God has also forgiven Dimmesdale.

Through out the scarlet letter there were many ways why a man wouldn’t confess his sins. So by giving the examples and reasons why men won’t confess what they have done wrong would give those who are confused a better understanding on this particular topic. Also questions based on what Dimmesdale is talking about will be answered, for example many question “is a person able to hide his guilt without destroying himself or not? and what is the meaning of Dimmesdale statement when he said “to the untrue man the entire universe is false.”

Dimmesdale is the character I chose, because he deals with his private child while being the minister in the town. This private sin is especially hard for him to come out with, because of his leadership and role in the town. The situation is eating him up inside, to the point where he starts beating himself, and doing several other things to harm himself. It not only took a toll on him, but also on pearl, the baby, and the mother, Hester. It had a worse effect on Hester than Dimmesdale, because Dimmesdale just let Hester take all the backlash for Pearl's birth.

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

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 Scarlet Letter, the letter A has a symbolic meaning that seemed to change as the

In the story “Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne there were characteristics and ways that distinguished Hester from Dimmesdale. On pages 68 and 69 Nina Baym made the statement that Dimmesdale depends on the opinion of the society while Hester stands alone throughout her trials and tribulations. If the author put it clear as possible on the situation at hand and the circumstances that favored Dimmesdale more than Hester while she faced her consequences head on while he hid from them. There is a tremendous amount of overloading evidence and information throughout the story proving this statement.

Dimmesdale’s health started to worsen as the days went on due to the continuous torture from his enemy, Roger Chillingworth. Hester thought it was unfair that her husband was taking advantage of her lover and she said, “‘ Your clutch is on his life, and you cause him to die daily a living death; and still he knows you not’” (Hawthorne 153). Because Mr. Dimmesdale formed a good relationship with Mr. Chillingworth, Mr. Dimmesdale was able to harass him about his sin each day. Hester then told her lover that his “conscience had been kept on an irritated state, the tendency of which was, not to cure by wholesome pain, but to disorganize and corrupt his spiritual being” (Hawthorne 176).

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter revolves around a Puritan community. Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, through different, all committed sinful crimes. Dr. Khan argues that Dimmesdale died because of atropine poisoning, but Roger Chillingworth was not trying to kill Dimmesdale, the symptoms was Dr. Khan has stated could be refute, and the guilt that Dimmesdale has suffered, which has lead to his declining death, is what really caused his death. Roger Chillingworth does not want Dimmesdale to die. Chillingworth’s motive and intention has play a big role in Dimmesdale life.

In The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale's sin of concealment ultimately leads to his downfall. Dimmesdale suffers immensely from keeping his sin a secret. By hiding his sin he faced extreme guilt that affected his mind and the way he thought. From hiding his sin in his mind, his body also began to bear the burden. Not only did his conscience contribute to his downfall, but because he did not confess, he also had Roger Chillingworth torturing him for many years.

In The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth changes from a freelance intellectual to an estranged physician as feelings of revenge control his life. Chillingworth neglected his marriage with Hester and the consequences ended up having an effect on both of their identities. In Chapter 15, Hester states her opinion on Chillingworth: “He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!” (159). In Hester's eyes, Chillingworth's actions changed her perspective on life as he is the sole reason she sinned in the first place. Hester coped with a life change while Chillingworth coped with revenge as a general effect of Chillingworth's neglect. Roger Chillingworth was physically and emotionally consumed by his years long plans for revenge on Reverend Dimmesdale. In Chapter 14, Roger Chillingworth says this of the Reverend to Hester: “Yea...better had he died...to be tortured with frightful dreams...perpetual poison of the direst revenge!” (155). In this quote, we see that Chillingworth's anger has turned his vile actions into words as he discusses the poisoning and brainwashing he forces Dimmesdale to endure on a daily basis. Chillingworth allowed jealousy and guilt control his life until it eventually ended. Chillingworth's’ revenge ended up killing him in the end since his plans worked and Dimmesdale died on the scaffold in which Hester lived out her daily punishments. Roger was ultimately responsible for the destruction of the lives of Hester, Dimmesdale and himself.