Guilt In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Why isn’t the minister seen as a horrible person and Chillingworth is? In the Book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dimmesdale, the Minister, has committed this terrible crime and some feel bad for him. This could be because Hester loves him; they are meant to be together. It’s interesting how Chillingworth can be seen as evil, but he is the one that was cheated on. He has mentally tortured Dimmesdale; obsessed with wanting him to suffer more that he has.

Abigail and John are both contrasting figures to these views because they commit sins, lie, and create the image not of what is expected in the Puritan religion. The purpose of these characters created by Miller was to show the restrictions of the Puritan society and how people sought out power because of grudges they held. The four sources given, explain that many but not all people have trouble upholding the expectations put upon them. In the end, John’s individualism cost him his life, and Abigail's forced her to flee Salem Village. BUt, if both characters had upheld their religious expectations, would the Salem Witch Trials have even

As a Puritan minister, he was well respected among the community. What they didn’t know, however, was that he was the culprit behind Hester 's adultery. Due to the lack of discipline received from the community, Dimmesdale ”loathed his miserable self”(99). The townspeople would never reprimand him, thus his guilt made him despise himself. Dimmesdale would also inflict pain upon himself using a “bloody scourge ”(99).

The strength drains him, leaving him dead after living a life of sin, weakness, and self-hatred. His weaknesses transform his view of himself until he despises who he is. His feeble attitude is what brings him to lose his final strengths. Because of his inability to admit his sins, Dimmesdale, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, transforms from a holy minister to a self-loathing sinner,

“Guilt is the source of sorrows, the avenging fiend that follows us behind with whips and stings.” - Nicholas Rowe. This message is shown in The Scarlet Letter, through Hawthorne’s character Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale was created by Nathaniel Hawthorne representing a weak character in many ways. One of the many weak decisions made by Hawthorne that stood out was the guilt he had built up, eating away at him causing an internal struggle if he should do right and confess or if he should let the one he loves suffer because of his actions.

Considering the townspeople’s reactions toward Hester’s sin of adultery, it can be concluded that in the Puritan era, religion was of utmost importance, and the Puritans met sins with extremely harsh punishments. Because the majority of the Puritan town viewed Hester as a disgrace, she became “Lonely . . . and without a friend on earth” (56). This made it effortless for the inhabitants of the town to continue to insult and degrade Hester because they did not care to learn her true personality. While a few civilians had sympathy for Hester, the town mostly regarded her as shameful and

Penance vs. Penitence In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes of the hypocrisy of the Puritans in the 1600’s. He expresses the hardships of Hester Prynne and her adulterous lover, Authur Dimmesdale, who is also the town’s preacher. Because Reverend Dimmesdale is a very noble preacher, he has to persist with the guilt of his sin and continue to preach how one should live a holy and pure lifestyle.

He kept his sin hidden from the community, knowing that staining his reputation will ruin his life as the moral leader of the town. He instead suffered quietly to himself, knowing that God is aware of his wrongdoing and will punish him justly. He felt such shame in his heart that he drove himself to the point of physical sickness. Dimmesdale ultimately died after revealing his sin to the townspeople many years later. John Proctor, similarly, was also a respected member of the community who committed adultery.

Similarly to Winthrop, Hawthorne’s writing contains a lot of references to Christianity, but they run contrary to the character’s supposed natures. Hester, a sinner, looks like the Virgin Mary. On the other hand, someone who should never sin - the Reverend Dimmesdale - has sinned and is connected to the devil. Pearl, notices that Dimmesdale’s sin has poisoned his body and yells “‘Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already!’”

For example, in The Black Minister’s Veil, Reverend Hooper wears the veil to attone for his sin, and in the process he scares those around him because the veil means much more than what it really is. When Mr. Hooper speaks out his sermons, those around him feel threatened and fearful, the text states, “The subject had reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest [...] Each member of the congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought” (Emerson 17-18). Mr. Hooper’s black veil creates a sense of fear and creepiness because it makes the townspeople feel as if the “preacher had crept upon them” and “discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought.” From this, we can infer that the black veil that Mr. Hooper wears scares those around him because it reminds humans that there are secret sins that exist deep within humans.

Eliezer has not only lost faith in god but he has begun to feel hatred towards him for letting innocent men and women be slaughtered and burned. Elie now feels strong hatred towards god for not protecting the Jews. Elie’s view of god changed for the worse. He was very religious and close to god in many ways. He slowly began to lose faith and hope in god.

“Why, then, had he come hither? Was it but the mockery of penitence? A mockery, indeed, but in which his soul trifled with itself. He had been driven higher by the impulse of that Remorse which dogged him everywhere” (Hawthorne 138) here dimmesdale can 't face the justice of what he has done wrong which is why the author called him a coward and is the reason why he kept his secrets because he is a coward to admit it to and face the consequences which is why later the guilt of keeping them eats him from the inside.

Generally throughout society people are condemned, punished, and judged for their individual choices and flaws. This can depict the concept of alienation and the way it affects the relationship between an individual and their society. In Nathaniel Hawthorne 's, The Scarlet Letter, sin and guilt play a huge role in the Puritan society during the 17th century. The author uses Hester to show that people who make mistakes will often face consequences that isolate them from their society. Throughout the Scarlet Letter, Hester experiences the effects of isolation and the outcome of sin due to the corrupt rules and strict moral values in the society.

This was simply because they believed that this was punishment for the sinners who defied God, despite the Bible’s claims to care for the sick and the poor. This condemnation stemmed from “God 's judgment on homosexuals and IV drug abusers,” which provided relief, justification, and less energy, time and resources, than directly combatting AIDS and all of its atrocities (McCarthy 167). Not only was the church was shunning these ostracized individuals away, but housing, job, educational, medical, and organizational discrimination also increased and these institutional intersecting dynamics placed more stressful strains on this community that already experiences high rates of these sufferings. The church’s emphasis on “fragility of life, the meaning of death, the human need for intimacy, the centrality of sex in personhood, the consequences of human behavior, the choice of lifestyle, respect for the privacy and integrity of others, the power of food example and the support of community” are not seen as applicable when interacting with those living with AIDS because their ideas of how AIDS is contacted also do not align

Reverend Parris is the minister of Salem. He is very proud because of his position though he scares of losing it. He is Betty’s father and Abigail’s uncle. In the book, the author indicates him as “there is very little good in himself”. Perris is a wormy, paranoid, unreliable and an ignoble character.