Three Scaffold Scenes - Progression of Dimmesdale

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

Dimmsdales sins affects his physical well-being, and his mental stability. Since he never publicly admits his sin, he has to keep his sins bottled up within him. He has no way to relieve himself of the burden of his sins, but to be shamed in public. He ultimately becomes a coward and he tortures himself . He was healthy before, but as the years go by, he becomes sickly, and he worsens his condition by abusing himself. Later on through the years, when he joins with Hester and Pearl in the forest , he becomes different, and when they decide what their plans will be, his health changes, and his energy seems as I it was back. He changes and transforms to another person. "The minister's own will, and Hester's will, and the fate that grew between them, had wrought this transformation. It was the same town as heretofore; but the same minister returned not from the forest." He changed to a new him.

Hester Prynne along with Reverend Dimmesdale are is forgiven because their “conscience” seems to have forgiven them. Pearl, who symbolizes their “conscience” kissed Dimmesdale on the lips after he confessed his sins to everyone. “Dear little Pearl, wilt thou kiss me now? Thou wouldst not yonder, in the forest! But now thou wilt?” This shows that he believes Pearl would only acknowledge him if he had confessed his sins to all and not just her. Therefore, he believes that Pearl contains the gateway to forgiveness with God, if he can get her to forgive him then he is forgiven. Owing to the fact that Pearl cried when

Chillingworth chooses to not forgive Dimmesdale but instead to seek revenge on him in evil ways, “He could play upon him as he chose. Would he arose him with a throb of agony?” (Pg.134) Hatred fills him and he is fueled by Dimmesdale's suffering. After Dimmesdale dies, Chillingworth withers away a year later. He had nothing more to live for.

Throughout this chapter Dimmesdale is tempted to do things, and is described as “At every step he was incited to do some strange, wild, wicked thing or another” (Hawthorn, 171). This is also confirmed by Olivia Taylor in her paper in which see is comparing Rev. Dimmsdale to a character from another novel “Like Dimmesdale, she too experiences moments of seeming insanity as she labors”(Taylor, 2). Much like Jesus was tested by satan after fasting for forty days Dimmesdale is tempted time and time again, but dimmesdale is not Jesus, and in his current condition by the end of his journey home Dimmesdale is nothing but a hollow shell of his former self, and he enters his house a broken man. Before We dive deeper in to the chapter let us look at a brief overview written by Robert

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, the young Arthur Dimmesdale is a highly respected reverend in 17th century puritanical Massachusetts. However, he is the most morally ambiguous character in the novel because of the one great sin he commits and fails to readily confess. For this, he suffers an internal affliction that destabilizes his physical and spiritual composure. Dimmesdale’s sin was detrimental, but this action cannot qualify him as a bad person because in all other aspects, he is as righteous as the Puritans came. This moral ambiguity of Dimmesdale plays a pivotal role in the novel because it allows the reader to distinguish between true good and evil.

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, proves to be a sinner against man, against God and most importantly against himself because he has committed adultery with Hester Prynne, resulting in an illegitimate child, Pearl. His sinning against himself, for which he ultimately paid the

In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dimmesdale gets sicker and sicker the longer he holds in his secret sin of Adultery. It takes place in a Puritan society, which was a strict, conservative, and simple group in Boston Massachusetts. The book focuses on the sin of Hester Pryne committing adultery and having a child, Pearl, with a man other than her husband, Chillingworth. Hester gets shamed and laughed at on the scaffold used for public humiliation. The vulnerable and weakening Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale comes closer to confessing to being Pearl’s father throughout the three scaffold scenes. “Sin as sickness” is a major theme in the book that is represented through Reverend Dimmesdale’s internal conflict. The more Dimmesdale

A reader may label Dimmesdale the purest of the sinners. Adultery, in the Christian world, is the one of the greatest sins a man can commit, second only to premeditated murder. In a Puritan society, it must be close to the same. Dimmesdale tries to purge himself of this evil sin by scourging and self-denial. However, he shies away from public confession, rationalizing the good he can instill in other men and women with his sermons. We find this illogical reasoning on page He endures Chillingworth's revenge and hatred while trying to preach what he doesn't practice. At his weakest point, Hester tempts him to cave in to the sin and do it all over again. Out of desperation to flee from the torture, he crumbles

Pearl broke the spell and she will be able to feel human joy and sorrow. She is no longer her mother’s anguish.

Dimmesdale’s love and agony towards Hester was shown in his physical and mental degeneration, furthermore, his love to Pearl, his daughter, was shown when he was trying to kiss her, but he always got her refusal, and this was the climax of his weakness and deterioration of character. yet, at the end of the novel, Dimmesdale’s health was in it’s worst stages, therefore he had nothing to lose, so he confronts his society and tells them about is adultery crime that he committed with Hester, and after he did that he gives up life, but as a matter of fact his death was not a sad one, for he was relieved from the pain in his heart and also got to kiss his daughter Pearl whom he never got to kiss, hence, at the end of the novel, the latter character musters courage and loses his weakness which was replaced with the powerful character that confronted without fear.

Dimmesdale constantly reminds of his sin by recognizing Pearl as the result of his affair. When Dimmesdale departed with the “mother” and “child,” he gave them a backward glance, following their “faintly traced outline” (249).

Dimmesdale’s fatal flaws are his feeble character and lack of strong morals. He, like Hester Prynne, is lost in a moral wilderness, in which he cannot muster the strength to confess his sin. For several years, Dimmesdale concealed

Guilt, shame, and penitence are just a few of the emotions that are often associated with a great act of sin. Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale, a highly respected minister of a 17th century Puritan community, is true example of this as he was somehow affected by all of these emotions after committing adultery. Due to the seven years of torturous internal struggle that finally resulted in his untimely death, Mr. Dimmesdale is the character who suffered the most throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Mr. Dimmesdale’s ever present guilt and boundless penance cause him an ongoing mental struggle of remorse and his conscience as well as deep physical pain from deprivation and self inflicted wounds. The external influence of the members of

In contrast to the first scaffold scene, the second one happened during the night, completely unseen by the other villagers. Again, we see Dimmesdale and Hester (and Pearl), but this time, the lovers appeared to be both on the platform of shame. In this passage, Dimmesdale finally decided to act upon his guilt since he “had been driven hither (to the scaffold) by the impulse that Remorse which dogged him everywhere” (132-133). This scene symbolizes a moment of great insight for the minister because he started to understand a way to repent himself. As Dimmesdale touched his little girl’s hand, he experienced “[an]other life than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart and hurrying through all his veins, as if the mother and the child were communicating their vital warmth to his half-torpid system” (137). The miserable sinner, who lived in utter darkness and despair for such a long time, at last began to grasp his responsibility towards Hester and Pearl and his role in the redemption of all three characters. However, Dimmesdale’s insight was not complete because he was still bounded with fear. When Pearl asked him to expose his sin to the public and admit her as his legitimate child, his courage