Arthur Dimmesdale is the pastor of this small puritan town, who has a secret affair with this girl named Hester Prynne. Hester gets pregnant and is publicly shamed in front of everyone in the town. Dimmesdale decides not to come out and tell everyone that he is her lover, by not doing this Dimmesdale causes himself great emotional pain. Most people just inferred that Dimmesdale would never do anything like this and didn't even think to question him. Unlike Ms. Prynne who confronts her guilt and shame early on in the story, Dimmesdale holds onto his guilt secretly until he finally goes through a process of, at first blaming Hester, then realizing that it wasn't all her fault, to having such strong guilt that he starts hurting himself, to doubting that he will ever get better, after which he comes out and shows everyone his scarlet letter, this…
Roger Chillingworth is the evil character in the story The Scarlet Letter. His goal is to harm the man responsible for the scarlet letter on Hester Prynne. Chillingworth obsesses over trying to find the man who had the baby with Prynne. He tracks him down and emotionally tortures him using guilt. Roger Chillingworth drives himself insane from the emotional harm he caused the man. He obsesses over Dimmsdale and torturing him for revenge. Chillingworth wasn’t willing…
Dimmesdale inhabits the shame brought on by religiosity. After sinning twice, first the adultery he commit with Hester and second by lying and hiding the first, Dimmesdale wallows in his own guilt. He begins to have visions of Hester and Pearl pointing out his guilt and of members of the community mocking him. He wishes to stand with Hester and Pearl on the scaffold. He wishes to tell his congregation, "to speak out, from his own pulpit, at the full height of his voice, and tell the people what he was" (125), but he hides this and the guilt gnaws at him. It gnaws at him until…
How can one be assigned the title of suffering the most? This is a complicated question presented in the book, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter is a book that revolves around a sinner named Hester Prynne, a minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, a physician, Roger Chillingworth, and a little girl named Pearl. Hester and Dimmesdale are both who has committed adultery; however, the story starts with Hester being a woman who is branded with a Scarlet Letter A, that represents adulterous, while Dimmesdale is not shown to be the person who Hester had an affair with. Throughout the story, Hester, Dimmesdale, Pearl, and Chillingworth are all in the midst of a troubling situation, while…
Sins in society today are not viewed as harshly or compared as they were during the time The Scarlet Letter was written. However, Roger Chillingworth’s sins are worse than Reverend Dimmesdale’s sins because of his motives for sinning, how it affects himself and how it affects others.…
Arthur’s view on the situation is he also had committed adultery. Arthur Dimmesdale’s sin had a big impact on him because his guilt was eating him alive. This sin cause him much suffering and pain, physically and mentally. I would sometimes whip myself because I knew my wrong doings, Dimmesdale explained. One night I had home out to the scaffold and had just stood there screaming. I then see Hester and Pearl and they join he on the scaffold. Pearl then asks me, “Are you going to stand here with us tomorrow?” No, I…
People have been trying to put a face to evil for many years. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, does exactly that with the character Roger Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth is the embodiment of evil. Throughout the story the reader sees embodiment of evil through his thoughts, actions, and appearance. Once this things are taken into account then one will see how Roger Chillingworth is the symbol of pure evil.…
The section in which Dimmesdale stood on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl impressed me the most. He conquered his fear and pride, and, as clearly as he could, confessed his crime. He recognized that though he had done an immense amount of penance, of good works, they could not atone for his sin. Only to “show himself to mankind as they would see him at the judgment-seat” would be the true act of penitence.…
When Chillingworth comes to America and resides with Native Americans he has a very different outlook on life than when he sees Hester on the scaffold. Beforehand, he had a far more positive outlook to the future, due to the fact that he is unaware of his wife’s affair. Chillingworth had spent years of his life attempting to gain the love and affection of Hester, and planned on continuing that course once he reunited with her. Chillingworth had been making an effort to improve their marriage. He displays this by saying, “Hester, I drew thee into my heart, into its innermost chamber, and sought to warm thee by the warmth which thy presence made there.” (63). He perhaps even expected them to begin a happy, new life immediately upon his arrival in the New World. Chillingworth also tried to get Hester to love him by paying off all of her families’ debt. He may have…
“Thou hast escaped me!”-Chillingworth says. Throughout the course of the Scarlet Letter many of the characters suffer personal struggle and make choices that affect the lives of others. All characters experience this but one such character is Roger Chillingworth or Mr. Prynne, as he is also known. The choices and character changes of Roger Chillingworth will be explained throughout this essay.…
The Scarlet Letter was written in 1850. This book was written by Nathanial Hawthorne. He wrote the book to apologize because he was embarrassed about his ancestors. This book is about a puritan woman who commits the sin of adultery. The puritans did not want the government controlling them so that’s why they came to America. Hawthorne wrote this book to show that guilt can destroy a person’s body and soul. In this book Hawthorne shows how the character Dimmesdale destroys himself his body and his soul alike.…
Upon Roger Chillingworth’s arrival to Boston, he discovers his wife being publicly shamed for a crime. Though the name of the mysterious lover was not yet revealed, Chillingworth changes his identity to mask the details of his past and pursuit “a new purpose; dark, it is true” as he lusts for revenge (Hawthorne, 72). Chillingworth takes an interest in Reverend Dimmesdale and, using his European science and native science…
Physically, his sin caused him to look like “an emaciated figure, his thin cheek, his white, heavy, pain-wrinkled brow” (149); he had become so physically pathetic from the guilt which tore at him internally. Dimmesdale’s method of repentance was much worse than Hester’s, both emotionally and physically. Emotionally, Dimmesdale was deeply torn over his moral responsibilities to himself and his responsibility to the community, ultimately refusing to confront his sin and redeem himself. Instead, he attempts to justify and convince himself that he is refusing to “display [himself] black and filthy in the view of men...because, thenceforward...no evil of the past be redeemed by better service” (91). Dimmesdale refuses to expose his secret in fear of losing the his role and respect in the Puritan community. He laments the relief that he has seen in “sinful brethren...who at last draw free air, after long stifling with his own polluted breath” (90), as he is both physically and emotionally pained by the stifling of his guilt. However, contradicting his own morals--based in the Puritan religion--and those that vest right action and right thought in Hester, Dimmesdale continues to suppress his guilt in an attempt to maintain his prestigious standing within the…
The downfall of an individual can grow from the societal influences of society’s compulsion to conform. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne and reverend Arthur Dimmesdale endeavor to assimilate to the expectations of a puritan society. Throughout the novel, Prynne and Dimmesdale fight to make amends for their sin of adultery, and as the town glares a spiteful eye at Prynne, Dimmesdale hides away, still loved by all. Prynne makes a conscious decision to embrace her quarantine from the community’s shunning. However, Dimmesdale faces an internal battle of shame and guilt while concealing his immorality. Prynne and Dimmesdale suffer the fate of alienation, however, Prynne accepts isolation, becoming steadfast, while Dimmesdale…
Dimmesdale does not realize the life of hypocrisy he will come to live as a result of his and Hester's sin. More than once he resolved to confess his hypocrisy and take his place beside Hester, but he is too afraid of the shame open confession would bring. In spite of this, Dimmesdale does not confess his sin to the public. This is hypocritical of Dimmesdale because a "true priest" would not hide his sin from his congregation. Also, his sermons revolve around Hester's sin, which just happens to be a sin he also committed. Dimmesdale says he loves Hester but yet he refuses to climb the scaffold with Hester to reveal the truth. He keeps away from Hester and does not associate himself with her. Hester tells Pearl "[Dimmesdale] will be [at the scaffold], child. But he will not greet thee today" meaning that she believes that one day Dimmesdale will finally admit to the public that he is the father to Pearl and the man with whom Hester committed adultery…