Scarlet Letter Essay

In Twentieth Century Interpretations, John C. Gerber affirms, “A sense of guilt

brings loneliness, and few have been able to show as well as Hawthorne how private

and bitter loneliness can be...Hawthorne also indicates that guilt repressed is far more

devastating in its effects than guilt openly acknowledged...” In The Scarlet Letter by

Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist, Arthur Dimmesdale, committed a sin of adultery

but he publicly confessed his role in the indiscretion. The fact that Hester takes all the

blame for their sin irritates his conscience, and he physically and psychologically

tortures himself. The result of this torture opens his mind. A consequence of his

repressed guilt is his feeling of loneliness which is described by Gerber. Dimmesdale’s

two antagonistic moral worlds are that of a preacher and that of a father. He probably

wants to balance both worlds but cannot for they conflict with one another.

Arthur Dimmesdale faces a major conflict. Should he confess and lose his

reputation? As a reverend, Dimmesdale has a voice that consoles people and an ability

to inspire audiences. His congregation admires him and seeks his advice. He excels in

his career and enjoys his reputation among his congregation and other ministers. If he

confesses he will lose his reputation and probably his career also. His commitments to

his congregation are in constant conflict with his feelings of guilt and his need to

confess. The more he suffers, the better his sermons become. Critics write,

“Dimmesdale is a more complicated, though less admirable and sympathetic, figure. He

first descends from his original position as the saintly guide and inspiration of the godly

to the position he occupies during the greater part of the novel as very nearly the worst

of sinners in his hypocracy and cowardice, then reascends by his final act of

courageous honesty to a position somewhere in between his reputation for light and his