Guilt In The Scarlett Letter

Topic 2
Throughout the novel, The Scarlett letter, the theme that “the punishment imposed on us by others may not be as destructive as the guilt we impose on ourselves” is shown a lot through some characters, especially Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. As the book goes along, we find out that Reverend Dimmesdale is Hester’s lover. Although the town people are not aware of this, the guilt he has inside him is much bigger than any punishment and so he begins to torture himself physically.
As the story commences, we are acknowledgeable of Hester’s sin, but we are left with the suspense of who her lover is. The story plot continues and so does the information. First, we are introduced to two of the main characters in the story, Roger Chillingworth
and Reverend Dimmesdale. We then find out that Chillingworth is Hester’s husband, who has returned to be with her after many years. However, he found with the news that she has committed adultery and is on the search to find who she committed this sin with. On the other hand, Reverend Dimmesdale is later revealed as Hester’s lover. The author does not directly tell us why Dimmesdale does not reveal to the town that he, as well as Hester, has committed sin but he does give us clues and hints on why he hasn’t come clean. Also, he lets us in on what he thinks and on what is happening inside his mind. On chapter eleven, we see Dimmesdale suffering; this however, does inspire him to deliver some of his most powerful sermons, which focuses on the topic of sin.
His struggles allow him to empathize with human weakness and he thus addresses “the whole human brotherhood in the heart’s native language.” Although the reverend deeply yearns to confess the truth of his sin to his parishioners, he cannot bring himself to do so. As a result, his self-probing keeps him up at night and he even sees visions. In one vision, he sees Hester and “little Pearl in her scarlet garb.” Hester points “her forefinger, first at the scarlet letter on her bosom, and then at the clergyman’s own breast.” The minister understands that he is delusional, but his psychological tumult leads him to assign great meaning to his delusions. Even the Bible offers him little support. Unable to unburden himself of the guilt deriving from his sin, he begins to believe that “the whole universe is false, . . . it shrinks to nothing within his grasp.” Dimmesdale begins to torture himself physically: he scourges himself with a whip, he fasts, and he holds extended vigils, during which he stays awake throughout the night meditating upon his sin. During one of these vigils, Dimmesdale seizes on an idea for what he believes may be a remedy to his pain. He decides to hold a vigil on the scaffold where, years before, Hester suffered for her sin. Hester’s sin is exposed to everyone and so she doesn’t really have to deal with
all her guilt inside of her, she has more of an external conflict. People see her as a disgraceful woman, they look at her in certain ways and all that affects her emotionally, but not to the point where she tortures herself. As for Dimmesdale he can’t reveal what he has done so therefore he has all that negativity inside him, the only solution he sees is torturing himself. He knows he can’t reveal his sin so in order to punish himself and have that same punishment as Hester he finds this to be his solution. As we can see, both Hester and Dimmesdale have committed the same sin but have different punishments. Hester having to stand up in the scaffold wearing the scarlet letter “A” and having to deal with everything the towns people say and do to her. Dimmesdale is being torturing himself since he thinks he has no other choice than keeping it to himself. The theme is pretty clear here, Hester’s sin being exposed to everyone is a punishment that is not as destructive as the one who is impose on us as we see in Dimmesdale’s situation where no one really has an idea that he has committed a sin. Therefore, he finds himself punishing him even greater than what he actually might deserve.