the effect of guilt through Dimmesdale and Hester. Hawthorne illustrates the awful effects of guilt, and freedom through confession. The book can either be seen as a comparison of suppressing or admitting sin, or of Hester and Dimmesdale. The ideas of keeping in and openly admitting sin contrast each other. Guilt is only in society, and cannot be seen in the forest. Society does play a major role on guilt, but guilt is only torturous if kept in secret. Arthur Dimmesdales torture from his guilt comes
Words: 496 - Pages: 2
characters in the Scarlet Letter. All of the characters had sinned but what they do to make up for it should grant them forgiveness. Hester and her daughter Pearl had a rough go at the beginning but they managed to stay faithful to the punishment. Dimmesdale, father of Pearl, and a coward throughout the story ends up making up for himself by the end of the story. Hester's husband Roger Chillingsworth looked for revenge during the story which made him evil in a way, but what happens after he dies makes
Words: 550 - Pages: 3
to a man like Reverend Dimmesdale. Although Wiggins is not religious like the prestigious Dimmesdale, their pessimistic look on life and “finding a way out” is similar. Wiggins wonders in Chapter Eight if he is “reaching them (school children) at all.” or if he’s “doing anything at all” (Gaines 62). Reverend Dimmesdale has a predicament of his own during his time in his labyrinthine mind. In Chapter Fourteen of The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dimmesdale states, rather grimly,
Words: 412 - Pages: 2
North American Literature 2014-2015. Individual Freedom restricted by Puritans. Analysis of Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. [Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Scarlet Letter] ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is to analyze how Nathaniel Hawthorne deals with the theme of freedom focusing on the major characters such as Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. I argue that, there is a sign of individual freedom due to the fact that all the characters have the right to act in the way they do it but they
Words: 1186 - Pages: 5
adultery against her husband Chillingworth, but also had a kid with a minister named Dimmesdale. When Chillingworth finds out that Dimmesdale is the father, and the other participant in the sin, he devotes his life to the torment and death of Dimmesdale. Hester and Dimmesdale committed a sin of love and passion, and they end up hurting themselves more than anyone else. Chillingworth intentionally torments Dimmesdale to the best of his abilities mentally and physically for years, and never once feels
Words: 284 - Pages: 2
more sinister character, whose darker complexion is only matched by the devil himself, with his only goal being to pursue Dimmesdale for his (and Hester’s) act of sin. For seven long years he stays, soon becoming dependent and obsessed about Dimmesdale’s suffering and pain, like a leech on a decayed animal. His
Words: 939 - Pages: 4
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a book about a Puritan reaction to adultery. In the novel, the adultery of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale causes Roger Chillingworth, who is the betrayed husband, to react negatively to the events outside of his control, showing that Chillingworth has been removed from his role as the important male figure in his marriage to Hester. Dimmesdale, who is the minister, removes Roger from his legal role as a dominant male figure in Hester’s life by first sleeping with Hester
Words: 663 - Pages: 3
Pearl, too, knows this when she asks Dimmesdale if he will “stand [at the scaffold] with [her] mother and [her], to-morrow noon-tide?” (n.b. 158). By refusing Pearl’s request, Dimmesdale declines to be associated with the symbol of immorality and with his own sins. Eventually, Dimmesdale does illustrate his moral decay, confessing in the only place he can, on the scaffold. Similar to the Valley of Ashes, the house that Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth move into is proven to be the
Words: 927 - Pages: 4
scene toward the end of The Scarlet Letter, Hester and Dimmesdale find themselves conversing in the forest. Hester presses Dimmesdale to join her in returning to the Old World, thereby abandoning the Providence community. Dimmesdale, a minister and revered figure in Puritan society, refuses, and the discussion that follows exposes the critical difference between their behavior. The scene shows that while Hester does not feel guilty, Dimmesdale internalizes his own guilt; this insinuates why they experience
Words: 331 - Pages: 2
seemed so pure and sweet to me. Pearl, in my opinion, really helped Dimmesdale in coming out and confessing her sins with her persuasive actions towards the middle and ending of the story. Dimmesdale, on the other hand, was a character I did not like much either. He was very weak minded and really only focused on his reputation and how people viewed him. He finally gained courage to admit his sins at the end, but it was too late. Dimmesdale died without facing any of the repercussions Hester had to deal
Words: 604 - Pages: 3
