As two main characters in The Scarlet Letter, which is written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester and Dimmesdale are committed adultery, therefore, the scarlet letter is patched on Hester’s chest. Accordingly, Hester and Dimmesdale have some similarities and differences. Both of the characters have the same sin, love each other, love Pearl , and indeed, they have been changed by their sin. On the other hand, the way that Hester and Dimmesdale deal with their sin is totally different, and it brings them to different ending as well. Hester and Dimmesdale love each other deeply, even though they have changed totally since their identical sin has revealed. “Neither can I any longer live without her companionship; so powerful is she to sustain- so …show more content…
Hester is punished at the scaffold in front of all town people for three days. The way that Hester suffers is physically, because she admits her sin publicly and learns from mistake. For instance, Hester begins to help those people who are poor or sick. So the shame of letter “A” on her chest has been erased and forgiven by people, and it even becomes a symbol of kindness and hope. Opposite to Hester, Dimmesdale suffers mentally. Due to Dimmesdale’s perfect reputation, he chooses to hide his sin from people. As a young pastor, God’s words judge Dimmesdale’s soul deeply, and sin in his heart burns his soul wildly. The more people trust him, the more he agonizes internally.Therefore, Dimmesdale starts to torture himself with whip, and even puts a letter “A” on his chest. Hidden sin in his heart break him down gradually. Eventually, the stress and pressure in Dimmesdale’s heart lead him to death. In comparison to Dimmesdale’s death, Hester’s ending is way different. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, but Hester eventually comes back to town without Pearl. Hester puts on the letter “A” again, and she starts to help people deal with their mental stress. “But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester's life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with
She receives three punishments from the townspeople, who claim they will free her from her sin. The community orders Hester to go to jail, wear a scarlet letter on her chest, and stand on the town scaffold for hours. Hester wears her scarlet letter proudly on her chest, and endures much suffering because of her public ridicule. Hester is “kept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan settlement” after she was released from prison, but she chooses to stay (Hawthorne 71). Later, Hester’s child, Pearl, symbolizes the Puritan view of Hester.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hester commits adultery with Dimmesdale and gets pregnant. The worst part about this sin is that this action affects so many people other than Hester. This sin affects two people in particular- Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Her action causes a man of God, Dimmesdale, to become corrupt with many other sins and Chillingworth to become obsessed with revenge. Dimmesdale, a town minister, commits adultery with Hester and is the father of her daughter.
Reverend Dimmsdale’s development through the text of “The Scarlet Letter” was that of positivity and peace. Dimmsdale was the secret father of Pearl and the secret lover of Hester Prynne. He was the reason for Hester’s torment and it showed on him through the book. Dimmsdale’s progression through “The Scarlet Letter” was a positive one because in the beginning he was unempathetic, in the middle of the book he was guilt-ridden and sympathetic, and at the end he was joyful and relieved. At the beginning of the story, Reverend Dimmsdale was introduced as a judge at Hester Prynne’s public shaming.
Hester’s Challenge In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester is a very strong and independent woman. She goes through all the judgement from the townspeople alone without anyone but Pearl by her side. Hester’s life becomes very tough after the scandal. Reverend Dimmesdale, the father of Pearl, does not assist Hester in the raising of Pearl; he only watches them from the outside.
Hawthorne’s use of the Formal Register in the sixth chapter, “Pearl” helps with amplifying the intensity of Hester and Pearl’s relationship in “The Scarlet Letter”. Hawthorne’s use of diction in the lines “ Mother and daughter stood together in the same circle of seclusion from human society...”, shows that Hester and Pearl are not just excluded from society but, are in a totally different sphere for the same reason; Hester’s sin. Hawthorne makes it crystal clear that there is no Pearl separate from the scarlet letter, she is the scarlet letter in human form. Despite Dimmesdale committing the same sin as Hester, he is not in the same sphere of seclusion because there is an obvious divide, him being the town’s beloved reverend and Hester being
Hester was forced to wear the scarlet A and “It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself,” (Hawthorne 51). Hester feels extremely isolated and alone when she wears the scarlet letter, as she knows it was not solely her in this sin. Dimmesdale uses Hester’s suffering as a reason to not confess by seeing the negative effects it has on her. Hawthorne shows that this makes the pain even worse for Hester, as she is experiencing the punishment of this sin alone. This also forces her to become a single mother and raise Pearl alone.
Adultery was such a terrible sin to be committed in mid-seventeenth century, especially within the puritan community. Hester wanted to protect the father of her child because she knew that if everyone found out Dimmesdale was the other part taker in this crime then, they both would have been killed but Dimmesdale, being the minister, helped and saved her by letting her off easy, thus wearing the scarlet as her punishment. When she first realizes what the letter is capable of, she does not like it and is ashamed for herself. The townspeople would treat her very differently as well as talk rudely about her. In chapter twenty one, the narrator states, “Her face, so long familiar to the townspeople, showed the marble quietude which they were accustomed to behold there.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commits a mortal sin by having an affair with a married woman, Hester Prynne. As a man of the cloth in Puritan society, Dimmesdale is expected to be the embodiment of the town’s values. He becomes captive to a self-imposed guilt that manifests from affair and his fear that he won’t meet the town’s high expectations of him. In an attempt to mitigate this guilt, Dimmesdale acts “piously” and accepts Chillingworth’s torture, causing him to suffer privately, unlike Hester who repented in the eyes of the townspeople. When Dimmesdale finally reveals his sin to the townspeople, he is able to free himself from his guilt.
No longer was she the smiling and blushing woman on the scaffold, she turned into a woman whose guilt ate her alive. Hester felt as if "no fellow-mortal was guilty like herself" (Hawthorne 95). Hester claimed that if the sins of everyone in town were announced as hers there would be more people wearing scarlet letters (Hawthorne 94), perhaps the town would have an entire alphabet of scarlet letters (Dawson 1011). Hester's situation made her lonely, she felt as if no one truly understood where she stood. The only companion Hester had was her beloved daughter, however, Pearl was a constant reminder of Hester's sin (Dawson 1011).
Hester was sentenced to wear the scarlet letter "A" for the rest of her life and Hester was forced to stand on the scaffold, so she could be publicly humiliated for her sin. Hester and Pearl will go through life, being shamed by others. The townspeople want to see Hester suffer. Hester and Pearl are strong enough to receive the looks and the talks that they will be getting from the
By not confessing to adultery, Dimmesdale retains his reputation, but at the cost of his soul. As a religious leader within the Puritan community, Dimmesdale must exhibit a moral example. Internalizing his guilt offers him a method of maintaining that position. Dimmesdale appears as “pure as new-fallen snow,” (84), but still hidden within him is his sin (84).
Throughout the beginning of The Scarlet Letter the marking on Arthur Dimmesdale’s chest is not directly mentioned, and it would appear that Dimmesdale has no correlation with the main character Hester Prynne at all. The only indication that the reader is given is Hester’s child Pearl reaching up at Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 40), but this is well before the marking is ever mentioned. Dimmesdale just seems to be a regular priest, or clergyman as they were called, who is trying to figure out with whom Hester had committed adultery. This can be seen as how guilt will conceal itself and hide away before it begins gnawing at a person’s insides. The guilt will slowly
While her punishment changes her physical appearance, it has a far more profound effect on her character. Hester seems much older and worn down with the scarlet letter on her bosom. To Hester, the scarlet letter is a
guilt reflected by the letter’s nearness can only be achieved by the will of God, in contrast with Hester’s letter which only reaches her chest. Dimmesdale’s affliction resulting from his guiltiness affirms that the letter’s proximity reflects his guilt. “Gnawed and tortured” while “suffering under bodily disease,” Dimmesdale’s guilt subjects him to a wild and bestial pain (128). This intense suffering stems from “some black trouble of the soul” due to the darkness of his guilt spiritually afflicting him and perpetually agitating his heart. What is bothering him is tied to a spiritual level, expressing the idea that in a way the trouble has darkened his spirit.
The differences between Dimmesdale and Hester can be seen throughout the book, The Scarlet Letter. For instance, Hester accepts her sin and punishment and works past it. On the other hand, Dimmesdale, feels more and more guilty and eventually dies because of it. Dimmesdale suffered more internally and Hester suffered more socially.