Dimmesdale's Concealment In The Scarlet Letter

Essay #1

Dimmesdale’s concealment of his sin of adultery caused him to almost entirely go insane, if not completely. He would punish himself for his sin by torturing himself. For example, he would whip himself with a “bloody scourge”, but he almost seemed to enjoy it, as he would laugh while whipping himself. He refused to seek outside help, and his undertaking of care from Chillingworth would eventually lead to his death.
At the beginning of the novel (specifically Ch. 3), Dimmesdale, Rev. John Wilson and Governor Bellingham try to convince her to reveal who the father of Hester’s child is, when midway through the novel, it is revealed to be that Dimmesdale is the father, showing the first piece of evidence of his concealment. The book

Hester is punished by being publicly humiliated, forced to the top of the scaffold and to expose her scarlet letter that she wore, and being booed and hissed at amongst the public. As Dimmesdale is upon the scaffold, he calls to the citizens of the town during the night, and Hester and Pearl soon join him, when a meteor later appears in the sky. The meteor appears in the sky looking like a letter A. Dimmesdale thinks that it is a demeaning representation of his sin, just like Hester’s scarlet letter. Chillingworth’s position on the scaffold involves Dimmesdale, Hester and Pearl upon the scaffold with him, with Dimmesdale revealing Chillingworth’s true evil figure after the torture he had committed upon Dimmesdale as revenge for his adulterous affair with Hester. The idea of the scaffold becoming a unifying device comes from the dynamic changes it goes through. At first, it was used to humiliate Hester in front of the public. Later, Dimmesdale scales it to attract the attention of the citizens, but Hester and Pearl soon join him and they stand together in front of the night sky, while the A-shaped meteor passes by. In the end, Dimmesdale uses it to reveal Chillingworth’s true self, in his evil, torturous