Private Shaming In The Minister's Vigl, By Nathaniel Hawthorne

As Dimmesdale has not been able to confess to his sin, he feels worse about himself. He tries in his sermons, but this is not understood by his audience, as they think it is simply a lesson. When he stands with Pearl and Hester on the scaffold at night, this is the first time he has “publicly” confessed to his crime; “[Hester] silently ascended the steps, and stood on the platform, holding little Pearl by the hand. The minister felt for the child’s other hand, and took it. The moment he did so there came a tumultuous rush of new life” (140).

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.

Dimmesdale's guilt surfaces through his brutal self-mutilation and absolute psychological anguish. Dimmesdale “piled it on his own shoulders” to relieve the guilt he feels from his sins (Hawthorne 110). Further, the more he “laughed bitterly at himself” the “more pitilessly” he whipped himself, which shows how Dimmesdale gains satisfaction from suffering for his sin. This satisfaction leads to him whipping himself harder because he believes he shouldn’t feel content. Hawthorne

Dimmesdale was a Puritan Minister better yet known as the man who ran off with a married woman named Hester. Not thinking about the decision nor the consequences of his actions, it greatly affected him afterwards. Having to go about life with a secret he later confessed, he continuously whipped himself at night punishing himself. He felt as if he deserved to be punished for the sin he performed not by others but he choose to do it himself. Dimmesdale couldn't handle the

Dimmesdale needs to feel forgiven by all the townspeople that he misled and he will do anything to get that forgiveness. Dimmesdale is with Hester on a platform in front of the townspeople he begins to say there is someone among them as guilty as Hester he then “With a spasm, he tore his minister’s robe away from his breast. It was revealed”(Hawthorne 23). Dimmesdale finally got to do what he wanted to do all along and take the soul crushing guilt off of his conscious and he got to do that with his last breathes. Dimmesdale get this off of his chest in a way to get the forgiveness he wants but Hester is looking for a different type of forgiveness. Hester wants forgiveness but not from the townspeople but she wants it from Dimmesdale for a different reason. Hester feels guilty for her dealings with Chillingworth and wants Dimmesdale's forgiveness when she say this “Let God punish! Thou shalt forgive!"(Hawthorne

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.

The Scarlet Letter paints a strong image of the role of public shaming during the Puritan time. The novel points to the idea that public shame can be used both as a blessing and a curse. Hester Prynne's scarlet A was constructed with the intent of

Other than being the child of a sinner, she is an angel at its brightest. Pearl is also sneaky, she deceived the Reverend, but without acknowledging the fact she was lied to by Hester. Pearl had been asked who her father was and Hester implemented the thought that the so called father is the Holy Father, God. So therefore, Pearl believes she is someone of special significance, that she’s the “single rose picked out of her Mother’s garden” and that she has no father, just Hester. Undoubtedly, Pearl will be lost in the future by feeling betrayed from her Mother. Hester depends on Pearl to be her savior, her Jesus, to cleanse her sins for her, but she do nothing but influence Pearl. Pearl is attached to her father and she remains attached to her mom, but even though she doesn't even realize who the father is when she discovers him, she will go to him and stay with him, and HEster will be isolated from society by not doing an act that the town cares about but what the family cares about. Pearl plays a significant role in keeping not only the family together but also the town, and the circumferencing

Dimmesdale is one of the respected mentors the townspeople look up to. The thing the townspeople don’t know is that he doesn’t practice what he preaches. Dimmesdale committed adultery with Hester Prynne, and if members of society found out, they would be deranged. He tried to tell them multiple times, but he just couldn’t say exactly what he had done because he was scared of letting them all down. In one of Dimmesdale’s sermons, he said, “ I am a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of the sinners, an abomination”(Hawthorne 131). Though he was trying to confess, he never actually told the townspeople the real sin he had committed. This gave all the townspeople listening the thought that they were even worse sinners than their respected minister, which is the opposite of what Dimmesdale wanted.

The society shows a hypocritical impression to the readers, while showing how their actions and words are affected by others. Nathaniel Hawthorne states, “The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering, at it” (Hawthorne 35). The society shows equal amounts of guilt and shame, but yet, they laugh at others’ mistakes and act as if their own are not visible. This is shown throughout the townspeople, showing how the society shapes people. Moreover, Hester had to wear the “A” on her chest for committing adultery, making the townspeople look at her in strange ways.

Pearl’s existence reminds Hester of her act of passion, which the cultural morality of Boston dictates as sinful. This is evident not only because Pearl is the product of Dimmesdale and Hester’s action, but because of who Pearl is at heart. Pearl’s personality is as stated,

This can be shown through the love that Hester has for Pearl. She loves Pearl with all of her heart but she sometimes questions what Pearl is because of some of the things she does such as screeching at the other children or referring to Dimmesdale as the Black Man. When Pearl and Hester have to go into town for the meeting with the governor, Dimmesdale ultimately helps out Hester by convincing the governor that she is a fit mother for Pearl. This act shows Dimmesdale's love for them but he can't come out and say it, which causes him to have constant internal conflicts about revealing his true identity or not. Lastly, when Hester has been banished and forced to wear the scarlet letter, she is constantly ridiculed by people of the town. After dealing with this for sometime, she decides to help the people of the town. Hester helps the people of the town out of the kindness of her heart and to try and find out who she

Hester Prynne is a great example of a strong woman. For example, even though the men of her town have more power than the women of the town, Hester is tougher than Reverend Dimmesdale, who cannot even admit his misdeed to the town. When people ask Hester who the father of Pearl is, she does not share his identity, even though she knows her silence will bring her a harsher punishment. Hester grows more powerful over the years while she keeps her secret. Furthermore, she returns to Boston after Dimmesdale has died and resumes life there. Dimmesdale does the opposite. His secret and guilt burden him over time and eventually kills him. Hester lives ignominiously in Boston and has the courage to have her disgrace be public, while Dimmesdale is a coward and cannot admit it. Another example

First, Hester’s punishment could be compared to a spectacle. Indeed, after having committed adultery in a Puritan society, the town government decides to punish Hester by exposing her on a scaffold for several months and by making her wear the “A” letter on her breast to be able to identify her as an adulterer. During this time, she faces endless mockeries and insults but she never gives up; she grows stronger and doesn’t let the town judgement affect her.

Novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his fictional novel, “The Scarlet Letter”, expresses a story about a young woman, Hester Prynne, back in the 1600s who was convicted of adultery and must now wear a big “A” on her chest to show those in the small Massachusetts Bay colony the sin she has committed. Hawthorne’s purpose is to illustrate the hardships Hester must go through for committing such act in the small colony where religion was put first. Hawthorne adopts a serious and pitiful tone throughout the novel to get the adult readers to sympathize with the main character, Hester Prynne. Though this book was written back in the 1800s and is based off a woman who’s shamed for adultery, this book can still relate to today’s world with some of