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Weakness In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'

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The Effects of Weakness How is a reverend, who has destroyed his own ticket through the magnificent gates of Heaven with sin, supposed to provide spiritual guidance to acquire that same ticket to the denizens of the community? Correct answer: He is not. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dimmesdale, the reverend, undergoes a transformation that leaves him dead and the Puritan society in disbelief. This transformation leads him to perform acts with unnatural strength from the usually very weak man. 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, …show more content…

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne opens with a weak reverend with a life full of sin and ends with a weak reverend who has finally redeemed himself, earning his ticket through the grandiose gates of Heaven. Dimmesdale 's weakness stems from his inability to admit his sins and the guilt derived from this inability eating away at him. His weakness begins to wear on him which makes him loathe his miserable self because of the inability to admit his sins. Finally, with a final bout of strength he frees himself from Chillingworth, from all the sin, and from all the guilt that has filled his life for seven long wearisome years. The transformation of being the holiest to the least holiest is clearly seen. However, when he was viewed as the holiest he was not with God and when viewed as an equal sinner to the masses he finally achieves acceptance of God. Through his feeble attitude Dimmesdale completely was transformed, becoming self loathing was a consequence of his weakness, and as a consequence of loathing he perished in front of all his previous

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