How Does Hester Commit Adultery In The Scarlet Letter

The first time Dimmesdale shows his cowardice is the day that Hester stands on the scaffold. He pleas with Hester to reveal the identity of the Father, however he isn’t very convincing. “What can thy silence do for him… who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips” (Hawthorne 45)! The man is convincing enough to convince the other clergymen that he is

He pleaded for her to say who else was involved so he too could be shamed with them. This quote shows how Dimmesdale had the audacity to stand alongside Hester and their Pearl and basically wait to see if Hester would actually reveal who the father was. He was selfish enough to keep quite so he could maintain his reputation rather than stand with

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.

Once Hester received the scarlet letter, she decided to stay in Boston to show her strength as a woman and to provide for her daughter Pearl. Being guilty of her sin she believed that it was right of her to remain in Boston, also, for her love for Reverend Dimmesdale who is the father of Pearl. “Free to return to her birthplace, or to any other European land, and there hide her character and identity under a new exterior, as completely as if emerging into another state of being” (Pg.54). Hester could've gone to Europe leaving her sin and guilt behind by leaving her past life and becoming an entirely new person there. Hester’s strength as a woman to continue to live in Boston after she is released in prison when having the option to flee the colony, is a clear example of how her strength as a character defines the fanciful role she fulfilled that women of her time wanted.

In the book, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester is very strong-willed and loyal. For example, when Dimmesdale tells Hester to identify the father and she replies, “I will not speak!” (51). When Hester is in front of many people; she stays strong and does not give Dimmesdale up. This is important because by not revealing the identity of the father, Hester stays loyal to Dimmesdale. Another example is when the governor tries to take Pearl away from Hester and she says, “Ye shall not take her! I will die first!” (85). Hester continues to be tough and not give up Pearl but also does not give the name of Pearl’s father. Hester continues to argue why she should keep Pearl and is willing to die before she would let someone else raise

In the Scarlet Letter there are two characters that are provided as a foil for one another. The one character Dimmesdale seems as if he is kind, but he has a terrible burden on him that is being torturing out of him. Chillingworth is his opposite. You think he is nice when really he is quite evil. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth bring out each other's characteristics and bring out the characteristics of other characters around them.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter provides a window into the puritanical mind through his character Reverend Dimmesdale. Reverend Dimmesdale comes to understand that one's relationship with God supersedes any other relationship one has, whether it's with one's beloved, one's children, or one's social circle. He expresses it publicly on the scaffold in a dramatic sequence in a passage in chapter 23. Throughout the story Dimmesdale is supposed to be an example of upright godly behavior but he's lying everyday, all the time, in every relationship because he had an affair with Hester. While adultery was illegal, it was also against one of God's Ten Commandments.

Dimmesdale has yet to reveal the truth, which, so far, has been devouring him,physically and mentally. Since this good reverend is so spiritual, he cannot reveal his truths to the town so simply. He is of the Puritan faith and being a follower of that, the sin of adultery is a very grand sin. The whole town would look down on him as if he were a hypocrite. Which in fact, he is, but his sin of adultery in that town would have been scoffed at just as Hester’s has. The reverend is so well liked by the townsfolk that

At this point in the book, Dimmesdale is well respected by the townspeople, and looked up to by many. He has a superior reputation and worries about ruining it. Dimmesdale urges Hester on the scaffold to tell the officials and the community the name of Pearl’s father. Though he does not have the courage to, since Dimmesdale is Hester’s spiritual mentor and pastor, he is obligated to question Hester about the crime. He knows that if he admits to his sin, he will lose the respect of the townspeople. The speech is two fold, meaning something different to both Hester and the townspeople. Dimmesdale starts contradicting himself, wanting Hester to name the father, but at the same time also not wanting her to: “Even in the first scaffold scene Hawthorne shows forth the deep ambivalence of Dimmesdale’s position: the minister would like to be named and known for what he is, an adulterer” (Twayne 3). Dimmesdale encourages Hester to give up his name when he says, “What can thy science do for him, except tempt him—yea, compel him, as it were—to add hypocrisy to sin?” (Hawthorne 26). According to his ability to keep in his true emotions, Dimmesdale seems unafraid to the community. Dimmesdale is a healthy Reverend, but his confidence slowly deteriorates as his sin consumes

Even though Hester’s sin is the one the book is titled after and centered around, it is not nearly the worst sin committed. Hester learns from her sin, and grows strong, a direct result of her punishment. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. “ Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers--stern and wild ones--and they had made her strong... “ Hester also deceived Dimmesdale, also committing the sin of deception. She swore to Chillingworth that she would keep their marriage a secret. She even withheld this from Dimmesdale, whom she truly loved. Hester finally insisted on telling Dimmesdale and clearing her conscience. In this passage, you can see how he grows angry at Hester: “O Hester Prynne, thou little, little knowest all the horror of this thing! And the shame!--the indelicacy!--the horrible ugliness of this exposure of a sick and guilty heart to the very eye that would gloat over it! Woman, woman, thou art accountable for this! I cannot forgive thee!”  Dimmesdale does forgive Hester. She has done

            Dimmesdale's instantaneous response to the sin is to lie.  He stands before Hester and the rest of the town and proceeds to give a moving speech about how it would be in her and the father's best interest for her to reveal the father's name (67).  Though he never actually says that he is not the other parent, he implies it by talking of the father in third person (67).  Such as, "If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I

Dimmesdale has a largely different approach to dealing with his sin. Arthur Dimmesdale handles his terrible guilt by concealing it to himself. To overcome it he would whip himself, and take long walks into the forest. Dimmesdale’s act of concealing his guilt shows that he is not brave enough to tell all and there for he must live fearfully and cowardly. This guilt he has chose to endure is much worse than any shame he would have felt had he just confessed his sin of adultery with Hester. Since he was a moral leader in his town he felt an obligation to keep it a secret but like in many cases where guilt is concealed, the sinner eventually reasons enough to confess. Dimmesdale does the same and confesses his sin to the townspeople. “He longed to speak out from his own pulpit, at the full height of his voice, and tell his people who he was.”

Although he committed the same sin that Hester did he was able to redeem himself in a way by helping Hester and Pearl as much as he could. He was able to persuade the governor to allow Hester to keep Pearl so they would not be separated. He even believes that the constant judgement of the town is unjust and the only judgement that matter is God’s judgement, this is shown when he says, “At the great judgment day...thy mother, and thou, and I, must stand together! But the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting.” The worst part about Dimmesdale’s sin is that he bears the guilt in secret, and he feels this is much worse than bearing the guilt publicly like Hester, this is evident when Dimmesdale says, “I should long ago have thrown off these garments of mock holiness, and have shown myself to mankind as they will see me at the judgment-seat.

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 Scarlet Letter, a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, has a plot that is greatly affected by significant scaffold scenes. During these scaffold scenes, the main characters are on a scaffold, or raised platform, as the center of attention for a period of humiliation and punishment. The reader is introduced to Hester Prynne and her daughter, Pearl Prynne, during the first of three scaffold scenes. It is revealed that Hester is being punished for committing adultery. Halfway into The Scarlet Letter, Hester and Pearl appear on top of the scaffold for the second time.