The Consequences of Sin Sin is defined as “an offense against religious or moral law”. The idea of sin and being ostracized for your sins was extremely relevant during the Puritan period when religion was the greatest component of daily life. The Puritans believed that they had entered a covenant with God and therefore any sin, such as crime and adultery were considered a breach of their covenant with God. This view led to the church punishing people who committed sin in order for God not to punish the church as a whole. The consequences and effects of sin is shown through the character development in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter. In the novel, Hester Prynne’s sin is the most obvious as she has committed adultery and as a result gives birth to a child named Pearl. Her adulterous act is extremely frowned upon in the New England Puritan society and she is forced to be publicly recognized and humiliated and decides to brand a red “A” on her …show more content…
As the story progresses, it is apparent that Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl. As a an important member of the Church, he conceals his sin in an attempt to make it to go away. Unfortunately for him, the concealment of his sin takes a toll on his mental and physical health. He becomes a manic-depressive. Not only had he committed adultery, he also was being a hypocrite, as reverend calling for the acceptance of your sins. Throughout the story, it is clear that he wants to confess his sin, when he is yelling at the scaffold at night but he’s too weak to do it publicly. The interactions between Hester and Dimmesdale show her hold over him because she has been publicly condemned for a sin that they had committed together. His inability to reveal and accept the truth makes him extremely weak. When Dimmesdale decides to reveal the truth during his Election Day speech, he passes away because he had waited too
First, Dimmesdale’s sin getting revealed was foreshadowed and it sounded as if it had to be revealed in a certain way. While Dimmesdale was with Hester and Pearl on the scaffold, Pearl asked if he would stand with them the next day. To this he said, “Nay, not so, my little Pearl, not so my child. I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee one other day, but not to-morrow” (Hawthorne 99). If Dimmesdale was not worried about what the public would think once he revealed his sin, then he would have just stood their the next day and revealed it then.
He feels he shouldn't be a minister or have people look up to him. On the last day of his life he sees Hester in the woods, they talk and make a plan to runaway together. Leaving, Hester, Dimmesdale feels a million times better. The excitement of Mr. Dimmesdale’s feelings as he returned from his interview with Hester lent him unaccustomed physical energy, (Hawthorne 204). That night he writes his speech to step down as a minister.
He repeatedly asked her who the father of her newborn child was knowing that it was himself all along. He did not join Hester on the scaffold when he was just as deserving of the punishment. This kind of behavior showed just how harsh his personality was to be able to stand there and watch the public display of his secret lover. The book also described him as “stone faced,” showing no emotion towards Hester as he was constantly harassing her with questions that he already knew the answer to. In this way it is also easy to see just how cowardly the young Dimmsdale was at the beginning of
Dimmesdale is consumed with so much guilt that the reverend started to punish the body God gives Dimmesdale for the sins committed. The Reverend believes that the punishment God is giving the reverend is to torturing the body given to Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale wants to expose the sins committed and live a life of truth just as Hester Prynne is living with her sins. Dimmesdale begins to envy Hester living a life of truth without having to punish the body God gives Hester, for the crime of adultery the woman commits with
The private guilt within Dimmesdale had overtaken his body and caused him to have to “[fight] back the bodily weakness” and have to develop “the faintness of heart, that was striving for the mastery with him” (208). Hawthorne uses this to show how his guilt and sin were taking over him and his confessions were going to help him get into heaven when he dies. Dimmesdale internal struggle with guilt had begun to overcome his body and become an everlasting punishment of he did not confess to his wrongdoings. Although he did not have any public shaming like Hester, he was much worse off than Hester because it was a constant struggle with his own moral values and it eventually got the best of him. Following Dimmesdale’s confession, it is said that “a spell was broken” and that Pearl, “in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies” (209).
There is a chance that if Dimmesdale confessed his sin when Hester was on the scaffold he might’ve not have suffered so badly. Dimmesdale was also physically tortured by Chillingworth, “... appearance of an immense letter-- the letter A-- marked out in lines of dull red light” (Hawthorne 107). Dimmesdale agrees that he should have confessed sooner because he says, “‘... behold me here, the one sinner of the world! At last!- at last!-- I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with this women…’”(Hawthorne 174). Chillingworth tortured Dimmesdale when he was living with him as his doctor.
This guilt is built because of the overwhelming sense of religion in his life. He is expected to obtain his role as a minister in the community and as a follower of God. In the end, we see Dimmesdale confess on the scaffold that he is the one who had an affair because he was unable to take the guilt anymore.
He knows that if he reveals what he has done, then his followers will lose their respect for him. He is burdened with his sin; therefore, he inflicts pain upon himself for his wrongdoing. Dimmesdale goes as far as having vigils all night, being tortured by “diabolic shapes,” and emaciating and whipping himself. Dimmesdale punishes himself because he wants to repent for the sin that he has committed.
A man named Chillingworth, who claimed to be a doctor, made Dimmesdale feel worse about his secret, Dimmesdale let him get in his head. Reverend Dimmesdale was very weak for being a priest and putting no faith into his God. Reverend Dimmesdale is afraid of his town and his people finding out about his sin. As a priest he wants to seem holy and sinless like the people think him to be, so he hides the fact he and Hester committed adultery. When Hester is on the scaffold, Dimmesdale is asked to try and get Hester to confess who the father is, “If thou feelest it to be for thy soul’s peace, and that thy earthly punishment will be made more
We are all sinners, no matter how hard we try to hide our faults, they always seem to come back, one way or another. Written in the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us Hester Prynne and how one sin can change her life completely. Hester Prynne changes a great deal throughout The Scarlet Letter. Through the view of the Puritans, Hester is an intense sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life committing the highest act of sin, adultery. For committing such a sinful act, Hester must wear the scarlet letter while also having to bear stares from those that gossip about her.
Hester and Dimmesdale each are equivalent in the sin that they commit, but their lives and fates are different because Hester had to repent for her crimes while Dimmesdale bottled up his guilt inside. The indirect result of Dimmesdale’s concealment of the truth was Chillingworth’s torture, which played a large role in Dimmesdale’s untimely death. Chillingworth snapped when Hester did not reveal Dimmesdale’s crimes. Hester, in part, helped Dimmesdale in
Amanda Vicente The Scarlet Letter Reading Response AP English Language Period J 16 August 2016 Journal Entry 1: Chapters 1-2 In The Scarlet Letter, the author sets a mood from the beginning of the book. The setting is old and beat up in front of an aged wooden prison with judgmental Puritans ready to tear a women apart. The Puritans are hypocrites and the author portrays that in the story.
His novel The Scarlet Letter expresses this very idea by exposing the follies of mankind and the potentially detrimental effects of sin through Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth
Because of the effects that Dimmesdale’s sin has on Chillingworth, the town suffers as well. The betrayal of their pastor leads them to refuse to see the truth when he pleads for the public to see his guilt at the end of the novel, and his secrecy from the people that adore him is one of the slyest and vile parts of his sin. The blind faith that the public has in their reverend is mislead by his deceit, which causes his sin to grow to a scale that Hester’s never did. Dimmesdale also harmed Pearl, by not standing with her and Hester on the day they were condemned. When she is grown, she asks, “Doth
As the moving of story, the “side effect” of the hidden sin has reveal. Dimmesdale become more sick and powerless. As the end of the story, Dimmesdale concede the sin and died as the winner of the fight with hidden sin. Dimmesdale as a combination of saint and sinner, his sin is not committed adultery, but it is that he cannot face the sin and admit it. He wanted to be all perfect in the eyes of the masses, but destroyed his perfectly in the eyes of God.