Hester Prynne And Dimmesdale In Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter Essay Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale were two of the main sinners in The Scarlet Letter. Both characters kept their sins secrete throughout the story. These sins included adultery, revenge, and even murder. Out of the two sinners, Chillingworth was the worst, because he never felt guilt for the terrible things he was doing. Dimmesdale spent his entire life in guilt and remorse for the sins he had committed (“Who”).

Chillingworth’s gravitation towards evil stimulates his lost of humanity, ultimately forcing his fate to become dependent on Dimmesdale’s public confession. When he arrives in the Puritan society in Boston, Chillingworth encounters his wife, Hester, enduring the consequences of public humiliation for an adulterous crime. Due to Hester’s defiant nature and her desire to conceal her partner’s name, Chillingworth was compelled to privately seek the identity of Hester’s partner. During his mission, Chillingworth earns the trust of Reverend Dimmesdale, whom he later identifies as Hester’s partner after discovering marks on the clergyman’s chest that closely resembles the shameful scarlet letter that Hester bears as punishment. Upon his discovery,

These traits both directly and indirectly affect the protagonists in The Scarlet Letter. Chillingsworth actions contribute to the scarlet letters theme of “suffering in silence” because of his relentless and vengeful attacks that promote despair. Chillingworth directly attacks Dimmesdale psychologically by “[p]rying into his recollections,

Furthermore, in the story of The Scarlet Letter, Hester, has a child with the town’s minister Arthur Dimmesdale, however, Chillingworth, the actual husband of Hester gets wind of this news and immediately sets out to find out who committed

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commits a mortal sin by having an affair with a married woman, Hester Prynne. As a man of the cloth in Puritan society, Dimmesdale is expected to be the embodiment of the town’s values. He becomes captive to a self-imposed guilt that manifests from affair and his fear that he won’t meet the town’s high expectations of him. In an attempt to mitigate this guilt, Dimmesdale acts “piously” and accepts Chillingworth’s torture, causing him to suffer privately, unlike Hester who repented in the eyes of the townspeople. When Dimmesdale finally reveals his sin to the townspeople, he is able to free himself from his guilt.

Nathaniel Hawthorne uses a multitude of imagery and symbolism to serve as metaphors for different themes in his novel The Scarlet Letter. The theme sin versus guilt, appears often throughout the novel. It is often accompanied by the symbol of the scarlet letter, serving as a constant reminder of the guilt each of the main characters carry, as a result of the sins they have committed. Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale each carry the burden of living a tainted life, being that they have all committed a sin. Hester and Dimmesdale both committed the ultimate sin of adultery.

“And the infectious poison of that sin had been thus rapidly diffused throughout his moral system” (Hawthorne 174). In The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale serves as the holiest person many people meet in their moral lifetime, and as the purest embodiment of God’s word. However, Dimmesdale has a wounding secret, a cancer, that tears his soul apart throughout his time in America. Dimmesdale falls prey to sin in a moment of passion with Hester, resulting in her condemnation by the townspeople, and the birth of their child, Pearl. For years, Dimmesdale’s life is defined by an internal conflict - his job demands his purity in the eye of the townspeople, but he desires the acceptance of herself that Hester achieves through her sin being made public. His

Dimmesdale and Hester suffers because of the sin they did. Dimmesdale feels guilt even though he never confesses that he is the farther. He would go to the scaffold at night and stand there screaming trying to get the people to come outside to see him but it was just all in his head when she would stand on the scaffold during the day with the red A on her chest she felt guilt even though she would not tell anyone who the farther is and for having an affair while her husband was missing for years. For example, Dimmesdale does not want to confess about his sin because he does not want to face the consequences. This is illustrated when Dimmesdale says, “then and there before the judgment-seat, thy mother and thou, and I must stand together” (Dimmesdale 139). Dimmesdale does

The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale is depressed, loving towards Hester and Pearl, and religious within the Puritan society. Trying to live the life of a reverend, Arthur Dimmesdale struggles with amenable desires. He is a religious authority in the Puritan society that he lives in, so he is an eminent figure. Mr. Dimmesdale is so religious that even after he has sinned, he does not know how to go against God’s will again. His weakness of mind makes him say “The judgement of God is on me.

Through a multitude of quotations, Hawthorne strategically implies how the Puritans justify their harsh judgments. Though the judgments were relatively harsh, some quotations suggest that the judgments of the Puritans could be a low level considering the judgment sinners will receive when judgment day comes. For instance Dimmensdale says, “Then, and there, before the judgment-sear, thy mother, and thou, and I, must stand together” (Hawthorne, 535). He then continues with “But the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting” (Hawthorne, 535). It seems as if Hawthorne suggests that the judgment that occur here on earth are mild in comparison to the intensity of the judgment of those in Heaven. Essentially, it seems that Hawthorne is drawing

Everyone, at some point in his or her life, has wanted to take revenge on someone. However, revenge is an obsessive, overwhelming response that is ultimately dissatisfying. In the Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth became completely preoccupied with taking revenge on Dimmesdale because he fathered a child with his wife, and through imagery, the gradual change from unpleasant physician to vengeful husband is shown. People say, “revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Dimmesdale’s True Colors Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, also the father of Hester’s child, showed prominent parts of his character throughout the story. The first trait the reader becomes aware of is Dimmesdale’s cowardice. He has no intentions of revealing his sin to the public, due to how highly he is seen in the community’s eyes. Remorse, or guilt, is another term that can be associated with Dimmesdale, growing increasingly more prominent as the novel goes on. Cowardice, a lacking of bravery when facing danger, was a trait that Dimmesdale carried.

Luke Chilton Mrs. Hogg AP English 3 January 2017 Module Eight Lesson Three Mastery Assignment: The Scarlet Letter Chapter 9-12 In the novel, Mr. Chillingworth suggests that it would be a good idea for Chillingworth and Dimmesdale to lodge in the same house. When the Reverend Dimmesdale tells his congregation the he is the worst of all sinners, the congregation becomes fussy and very upset over the fact that he has been a liar and a hypocrite.

The Scarlet Letter In The Scarlet Letter by Daniel Hawthorne many villainous acts occur that contribute to the plot and direction of the text. One antagonist in the novel is Chillingworth, the “departed” husband of Hester Prynne. Chillingworth and his constant mission to gain his wife's love and to reveal the father with whom Hester's baby was conceived by leads him to take some villainous actions. Chillingworth took many actions to obtain his goals, examples of this are constantly exemplified throughout the novel, one example is Chillingworth’s unrelenting hatred towards Dimmesdale.

He was the last person that people would think as a sinner. Dimmesdale was sin when he was committed adultery with Hester. He broke the law of church, but he was afraid to face the punishment and indifferent attitude from he masses. As a faithful follower, Dimmesdale also afraid the punishment of God, so he flog himself with a whip. The physical and spiral torture and the control of Chillingworth stranded him in a world that he cannot contact with others.