Who Is Dimmesdale Punish Sinners In The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reverend Dimmesdale experiences a distressing situation where his ability to make the correct choice is tested. The choice that haunts him is whether to admit to his sin of adultery, or to continue to conceal it from the public eye in order to preserve his reputation. Hawthorne’s portrayal of Dimmesdale shows that when faced with difficult situations, people tend to choose to bury the truth as it seems like the easier thing to do. However, as we learn from Dimmesdale’s experience, failing to admit to our misdeeds eventually causes even more distress than the transgression itself.

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, one of the protagonists of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, stands as a highly conflicted character. The source of his divide stems from the consequences of private sins, and is prevalent within the first paragraphs of Chapter 12, “The Minister’s Vigil,” where the narration chronicles Dimmesdale’s surroundings as he dream walks through the town in a state of limbo. He is portrayed as a model citizen who lacks moral imperfections to the general public yet suffers privately from the juxtaposition of his sins to his position within the community. In this specific passage, Hawthorne uses somber diction and imagery to illustrate Dimmesdale’s strife, while portraying his internal conflict through the formation

The relationship between Pearl and Reverend Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter is one that both intrigues the reader and keeps them wanting to find out more. At the beginning of the story nothing is very clear about Pearl’s father but as you read on there are many cues that lead you to Reverend Dimmesdale, the pastor of the church where Pearl’s mother, Hester Prynne, was a member. Through all the twists and turns there are a few things that stick out in the readers mind such as the progression of their relationship, the behavior and psychology of Pearl and how the novel could be seen as a story almost all about Pearl. The progression starts during the third chapter of the novel when Hester and her young child are on the scaffold to be publicly shamed for her adultery.

Then, and there, before the judgment seat, thy mother, and thou, and I must stand together. But the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting!" (Hawthrone 277). This reply Dimmesdale gives to pearl when she asks him why he cannot stay with his mother and her together shows that even though Dimmesdale feels guilt and wants to make things right with Pearl and Hester. However, he still has a constant fear of what the public would think of him and the fear of losing his position in the church/society.

Rumors flew regarding how Dimmesdale got his scarlet letter: he carved it himself out of guilt, Chillingworth’s strong hatred increased its power, and that it was burnt onto him out of regret. All these rumors reflected the pain Dimmesdale got because he only thought of protecting his own reputation at first. Revealing that hiding anything and only to protect personal benefit will destroy one’s spirit and soul. Dimmesdale’s death impacted many characters. Chillingworth had no more sin to feed on and therefore withered; Pearl, found a happy new life in Europe.

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.

After Dimmesdale and Hester have their discussion in the forest about freeing themselves from the harsh Puritan society, Dimmesdale ends up having a characteristic transformation. Dimmesdale feels that he has just released his sin that he has been keeping secret all this time, which causes him “at every step to do some strange, wild, wicked thing or another, with a sense that it would be at once involuntary and intentional, in spite of himself, yet growing out of a profounder self than that which opposed the impulse.” This passage is closely foreshadowing how in the new future, Dimmesdale is going to break free from his common characteristic of the noble minister, that he has worn so far throughout the story. Hawthorne also chooses to mention

In order to reveal Dimmesdale's sorrowful nature. Hawthorne describes the different actions the poor minister takes in order to attempt to atone for his sins such as “[fasting]” and his use of a “bloody scourge” he genuinely believed that this would help to purify himself of his sins and to relieve the burden that he was forced to bear upon his shoulders, however his attempts to atone ultimately lead to even more torment. Hawthorne discloses this by describing Dimmesdale’s visions of the “herd of diabolic shapes, that grinned and mocked at the pale minister” this further reveals the utter anguish that he is going through another example of this is the vision of his mother “turning her face away as she passed by” the emotional

Often when people make a mistake, they try to mask the truth to elude the corollary. The Puritans had a very demanding society. Which all sins were greeted with grim punishment. In The Scarlet letter Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale commit a sin amongst the Puritan society; adultery, but only half of the truth is revealed. The Puritan society only knows about Hester’s sin; all the while, Dimmesdale’s half of the "shared sin" remains concealed.

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story about a woman, Hester Prynne, who committed adultery with the reverend, Arthur Dimmesdale, which will not confess his sin. A physician, Roger Chillingworth, takes care of him on the outside, but behind closed doors Chillingworth is keeping Dimmesdale in his pain. Because the man will not confess his sin he tortures himself, which causes physical and mental illnesses. Another American gothic novel, Moby Dick, was writing from the author's, Herman Melville , experience on a whaling ship. The wailing ship’s captain is Captain Ahab.

When encountered with a woman charged with adultery, Jesus proclaimed, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). As no man is truly without sin, humans cannot justly punish them for sins without holy guidance. They can, however, worsen their own sin to the point of being irredeemable. in The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Dimmesdale’s sin was the most unholy and dangerous of all those presented in the novel.

Arthur Dimmesdale’s main internal conflict was the guilt derived from his sins. Arthur was a well known and admired minister of the Puritans. However, after committing the sin of adultery with Hester Prynne, he is guilt ridden and cannot confess his sins openly. Due to Dimmesdale’s weak nature, he is incapable of dealing with sin. As Dimmesdale’s guilt continously gets worse by the pressure of Roger, he inflicts self punishment on himself, “secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge...

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.