Dimmesdale's Guilt

During the early settlement of New England, there was a period where a strict society-based religious group, called the Puritans, dictated law. In this religion, they followed extremely harsh laws for punishment such as sinning, as found in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In his novel, Hawthorne uses the symbolism of Dimmesdale, the leech, and the punishment scaffold to contribute to his overall theme of guilt.
Firstly, the main character Hester Prynne was caught in the act of adultery, and produced a child from it, which she named Pearl. The father of said child is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the book, Dimmesdale’s relationship with Hester was kept under secret but discreetly implied within the text. During the time
where his sin is hidden, the town believes him a good, saintly fellow, and holds him high in status for town, which is the making of his mental state where he is undone by his secret guilt, and not going through punishment as his lover and child have gone through. As stated by Governor Bellingham, “Good Master Dimmesdale,” said he, “the responsibility of this woman’s soul lies greatly with you.” (Hawthorne, 64). This specific quote has a deeper meaning to pointing out how Dimmesdale not admitting his sin earlier in the book, makes his guilt feel more as Hester’s punishment should have also been his. As well, this is Hawthorne foreshadowing that when Hester is in pain/punishment, it goes back to Dimmesdale as guilt. During the first scene where Hester is presented to the readers, she is walking out of the town’s prison for the first time in 3 months, Dimmesdale says, “If thou feelest it to be for thy soul’s peace, and that earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual ... to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and they fellow-sufferer! ... yet better it were it so than hide a guilty heart through light!” (Hawthorne, 65). Essentially, this is Dimmesdale telling Hester to out him to the townspeople as an adulterer as he doesn’t have the courage to do it himself, and if she doesn’t, his “guilty heart” will quietly fester in the dark. Dimmesdale is in a moral stalemate, seeing how he feels for what’s happening to Hester and Pearl, yet refusing to confess and take the burden off of her, inducing even more guilt in his life.
Following up, all of the guilt that Dimmesdale has had is its own attraction to characters, such as Doctor/Physician Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband.
He is commonly referred to throughout the book as the leech, which is derived from the medicinal use of leeches to suck the bad blood out of a sick patient, but also, in a deeper meaning, is for how Chillingworth sucks the guilt out of his patient (Dimmesdale) for his own benefit and the destruction of Dimmesdale. By leeching off of Dimmesdale, who is ‘sick’ with guilt, Chillingworth is extracting his revenge on both Hester and Dimmesdale, who had an affair together thinking that Chillingworth was dead. Since Chillingworth is a physician, and Dimmesdale is sick, they’ve spent time together and have discussed the theme of guilt and sin, such as stated when Chillingworth found a warped medical plant on the unmarked grave of a sinner, where Dimmesdale states, “... guilty as they may be, retaining nevertheless, a zeal for God’s glory and man’s welfare, they shrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view of men...” (Hawthorne, 128). Then after, Chillingworth retorts by saying “This disorder is a strange one; not so much in itself, nor as outwardly manifested...” (Hawthorne, 132). Chillingworth is discussing Dimmesdale’s sickness and how he’s showing the readers that he knows he’s dying of guilt, yet keeps Dimmesdale in the sick/guilty state so Chillingworth can leech off of his
torture.
Furthermore, the scaffold where the town punishes the sinners, where Hester and Pearl were punished, is also where Dimmesdale has his final moments, and admits his guilt, standing with Hester and Pearl together, as he should have in the beginning.
Before he stands in front of the town with his family, they stand under the night sky on the scaffold with a red ‘A’ in the stars to illuminate the fact that they’re all together in guilty sin, as stated by Hawthorne, “... now long since, Hester Prynne had lived her first hours of public ignominy.” (Hawthorne, 143). This quote is setting up how Dimmesdale knows that this is where Hester was first punished for their sins. To the end of the book, Hawthorne then ties the scaffold to a release of guilt, saying “They beheld the minister, leaning on Hester’s shoulder and supported by her arm around him, approached the scaffold and ascended its steps; while still the little hand of the sin-born child was clasped in his.” (Hawthorne, 248). This is the beginning of the admittance of guilt and sin to the town.
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there is multiple uses of symbolism for guilt using details such as Dimmesdale, the leech reference, and the scaffold scenes. By adding all of these important text findings, one can conclude that there is deeper guilt than seen on the surface, and that it’s important for us to admit our guilt as we find it within ourselves, or suffer with a heavy heart until it consumes
us.