In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dimmesdale is introduced with a sympathetic tone. Hawthorne portrays Dimmesdale as a tormented man in order to get the audience to sympathize with him. By highlighting Dimmesdale’s “melancholy eyes” and overall timid nature, Hawthorne establishes the strange and internal fragility of the town’s revered minister (64). Since eyes are often a symbol of the soul, Hawthorne uses the description of Dimmesdale’s eyes in order to relate that it is, in fact, Dimmesdale’s soul that is so despondent. This disconsolate nature within such a high-ranking and well respected official alludes to a deeper conflict within Dimmesdale’s spirit. Such a conflict elicits a sympathetic tone from the narrator who, like most humans, pities those with deeply troubled souls. …show more content…
This allusion is created by Hawthorne’s specific emphasis when Dimmesdale insists that Hester should trust his word especially when he says that her lover would be better off confessing today than suffer without hope of redemption all his life, implying that Dimmesdale himself is familiar with the latter option (65). Considering this content within his speech and the speech’s emphasis on the cowardly nature of those who do not confess their sins, it is fair to say that Dimmesdale’s earlier characterization as “apprehensive, [] startled, [and] half-frightened” is highlighting his own timorous nature, thus suggesting that he himself has sins that he has not confessed because of his own cowardice (64). Suffering due to a mistake or flaw, like Dimmesdale implies he is, is something all people can relate and sympathize with and Hawthorne uses the pastor’s imperfections in order to curry a sympathetic tone within the passage. The passage also uses Dimmesdale’s suffering to elicit sympathy when Hawthorne remarks upon the pastor’s lack of meaning or