Light And Darkness In The Scarlet Letter

Every day, he fears that his seemingly impervious secret will break free from the figurative restraints he has placed upon it. As the years go by, the guilt devours the holiness and purity that he is supposed to radiate to his fellow followers of God. It becomes blatantly evident that Reverend Dimmesdale is not a proponent of practicing what he preaches. For instance, when Pearl asks Dimmesdale if he will stand upon the scaffold with Hester and her, he declares that he will only do so “at the great judgment day” with God as the only witness (Hawthorne 127). This statement depicts his fear of revealing the truth, though that is what he preaches for his people to do, no matter the consequences. Dimmesdale is shielding his earthly self from the penalties that the exposé of his clandestine will entail, despite the double standard he is authoring to the community. Moreover, Dimmesdale refuses to allow “the daylight of the world to see [his] meeting” with his daughter and mistress (127). Throughout the novel, the daylight is a resilient symbol for the truth, which is why Dimmesdale fears to permit the light to see him dwelling in his secret. His name itself also plays into the symbol of light, as the first fragment of his name is “Dim”. This further juxtaposes the light/truth that the Reverend is supposed to be

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter conveys the war between passion and responsibility, and how it concerns moral duty. Conflicts which Reverend Dimmesdale faces show readers how difficult it can be to come forward and reveal your sins. The circumstances which victimized Dimmesdale made it harder for him to accept responsibility publicly, which is the foundation of much of this novel. Hawthorne uses Dimmesdale’s character to convey the true struggle between passion and responsibility in The Scarlet Letter. While Dimmesdale yearned to face his sins, his passion overpowered him and took over the

The Scarlet Letter showed that sin corrupts the human soul and motivates evil actions. This can be proven in the cases of Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth. Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth were all corrupted with sin, which determined all of their actions in The Scarlet Letter. Hester’s sin occurred before the story began. She sinned by letting herself love a man other than her husband, After the sin of loving another man she went further down the path of sin by having an affair with Dimmesdale.

How Medicine Walk is a healing journey for Franklin and Eldon. The characters Eldon and Franklin, in which Richard Wagamese explores in his novel “Medicine Walk,” embark on a complex yet pulchritudinous journey which mends the fragments in both of their lives. A Medicine Walk is a facilitated walk-in nature that allows one to shift their consciousness so that one can receive the medicine their soul needs; however, Bunky (the old man) describes it as the time you take to gather what you need to be strong. On Page 65 Bunky explains, “Everything a guy would need is here if you want it and know how to look for it.” This novel delves deeper into this definition that Bucky provides in the way that it shows the journey that Eldon and Franklin endured to obtain those necessities

Through this specific method, the readers, similar to the characters in the story, were only allowed to view this character in the way that Dimmesdale would have hoped to be seen; innocent and divine. Reverend Dimmesdale’s hidden wrongdoing led him to receive no punishment, however the individual who had committed the crime with him, Hester Prynne and their daughter, Pearl, had been penalized and shunned upon by the town’s community. Initially, the character had held a strong-willed attempt to throw away the past and avoid the mother and daughter together gracefully, yet his guilty conscience that had bitten down, would not let go. Hawthorne gradually unmasks to the readers what lies underneath Dimmesdale’s vibrant demeanor, and the first unusual sign of distress in this reverend comes to life. Readers begin to perceive that as his guilt continues to haunt him in endless cycles, the easier he is weakened by hallucination and sinful thoughts. We first see that Dimmesdale had begun to develop a strong desire to correct his fault by relentlessly having the compelling urge to see Hester and Pearl, hoping that this new method would cleanse him from feeling sinful. Despite switching from heavy avoidance to necessary sights, Hawthorne left Dimmesdale’s unphasable guilt with him, eventually turned his dimming mind inside out, enclosing him with darkness and insanitary occurrences such as hallucination, which continued to destroyed his mindset, and made him significantly

This sin ends up consuming the rest of his existence because of the guilt he feels for not confessing. It is only in the end when he publicly confesses his sin that he is able to die in peace. His final words include a praise to God for “...bringing [me] hither, to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people! (ch. 23)” Dimmesdale is glad that he gets the chance to be publicly shamed in his last minutes of life, because this was the punishment he deserved in the first place.

sin to fester in his heart for over seven years, Dimmesdale, now a dying man from sin, decided to

Another use of inner guilt versus confession is used when Dimmesdale is on the scaffold with

Nathaniel Hawthorne's bold novel, The Scarlet Letter, revolves around sin and punishment.  The main characters of the novel sharply contrast each other in the way they react to the sin that has been committed

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

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

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.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a well-know Dark Romantic, employs the issues prevalent in Dark Romanticism in his novel The Scarlet Letter. These include the concepts of: guilt and sin, good and evil, and madness in the human psyche. Guilt and sin are heavily addressed in the novel, focusing on Hester’s outward versus Dimmesdale’s hidden guilt, and the sins committed by the adulterous couple and the revenge-driven Roger Chillingworth. The idea of what good and evil are is questioned in the novel. For example, the reader is led to question if Hester was right in not revealing Dimmesdale, and in turn if both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth were

Mr. Dimmesdale’s conscience constantly brought his negative aspects to mind, and caused him to spiral into self hatred and misery. The overwhelming presence of guilt for his offense caused Mr. Dimmesdale unbearable suffering and general unhappiness in knowing that he had not only wronged God, but Hester and the entire community as well.

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the popular, gifted, young clergyman and in which no expected, was Hester Prynne’s secretive lover. The citizens of Boston saw him as the perfect man, who could do no wrong. Little had they known, his sin was just as bad as Hester’s. Just like Black’s quote stated, Reverend Dimmesdale, acted on his light side, and used his sins to preach his best of sermons. Hawthorne stated on page 131, ‘To the high mountain-peaks of faith and sanctity he would have climbed…”. As many can observe, the young clergyman was a tremendous minister. He preached wonderful sermons and truly showed himself to be a man of God. Dimmesdale was a talented young man with a dark side that few people knew of. “…Mr. Dimmesdale was thinking of his grave, he questioned with himself whether the grass would ever grow on it, because an accursed thing must be there” (Hawthorne 131). This shows while he was preaching tremendous sermons, his health started to deteriorate, due to his inner guilt he was holding within himself. Perhaps if his lingering sin had not expended him, he would have been able live a happier, healthier life. However, unfortunately for him, the secret he was keeping was eating at him from the inside out and his darkness was prevailing. Dimmesdale’s sin of keeping the