Character Analysis Of Mr. Dimmesdale In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

I wonder if Hester loved Mr. Dimmesdale?
It’s easy to think she does because she became an adulteress and faced a novel’s worth of guilt and shame for him. She never seems to resent him for making her face ignominy by herself. In fact, she is deeply concerned for his health and even offers to run away with him: “Thou shalt not go alone!”(136). Though all these actions seem like proof of love, I think Hester does these things for other reasons.
The Scarlet Letter is definitely not a romance novel. Not only does it have an unhappy ending, but the two characters who are romantically involved never become emotional equals. Throughout Scarlet Letter, Hester seems stronger and more admirable because she faces her shame with grace and poise.
Her marriage with Robert Chillingworth was undoubtedly unhappy since she considers marrying Chillingworth the worst decision of her life: “She deemed it her crime most to be repented of, that she had ever endured, and reciprocated, the lukewarm grasp of his hand and had suffered the smile of his lips and eyes to mingle and melt with his own.” (121) The metaphor of “eyes” mingling and melting “with his” suggests that Chillingworth forced Hester to change and be more like him. As implied by his name and the metaphor of a “lukewarm grasp”, Chillingworth was never particularly warm or loving. Not only is Chillingsworth several decades older than Hester, he seems to suck (or “leech”) the vitality out of her. In his first conversation with Hester, he admits he wronged her by marrying her (52). Considering that the Scarlet Letter is entirely about dealing with the guilt and shame of a sin, the fact that Hester considers marrying Chillingworth “her crime most to be repented of” is telling. The loneliness of her unhappy marriage to Chillingworth probably pushed her to commit adultery with Mr.Dimmesdale. In his first appearance in the novel, Dimmesdale is described as a “person of very striking effect” and compared to an “angel” (46). He has youth, “freshness, and fragrance and the dewy purity of thought” (46) — all things which Chillingworth does not have and Hester probably longed
Since she makes it clear she does not respect Dimmesdale and will not do so until he acknowledges her in broad daylight, it is likely that Hester subconsciously agrees with her. During Dimmesdale’s midnight visit to the stockades, Pearl repeatedly asks him, “Wilt thou stand here with my mother and me, to-morrow noontide?” (105) He evades her question because he has no intention of doing so until Judgement Day and Pearl loses any respect she might have had for him. The next time she meets him, in the forest, she does not acknowledge the minister directly. Instead, she directs her question to her mother: “Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?” (145) Her mother can not assure her that he will, so Pearl distances herself from him entirely. When he kisses her on the brow, she pointedly washes the kiss off. This action suggests that Pearl, and by extension Hester, do not think Dimmesdale’s affection is very valuable; they can not respect