Preview

Disease Of The Soul In Dimmesdale's The Scarlet Letter

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
100 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Disease Of The Soul In Dimmesdale's The Scarlet Letter
Through all his inner turmoil, Dimmesdale still remains with a connection to God. He says that he will not confess to Chillingworth because he lacks to spirituality of God to heal a disease of the soul. Only God can heal this spiritual illness because he is the only “physician of the soul.” Dimmesdale’s religious beliefs still remain despite him growing weaker. His recognition of God’s heavenly power over him, allows him to believe that God will do with him as he pleases. Due to Chillingworth’s inability to heal him, He does not want him to come between him and God.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Person Vs. Person – Dimmesdale and Hester are afraid that he will not be able to escape from Chillingworth’s care. This is also situational irony because the beginning reason Chillingworth is watching over Dimmesdale is to help him and cure him of his sickness.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The section in which Dimmesdale stood on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl impressed me the most. He conquered his fear and pride, and, as clearly as he could, confessed his crime. He recognized that though he had done an immense amount of penance, of good works, they could not atone for his sin. Only to “show himself to mankind as they would see him at the judgment-seat” would be the true act of penitence.…

    • 231 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hester Prynne’s sin in the Scarlet Letter, was adultery. She committed adultery with Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. This sin in particular was one of the more frowned upon of the Puritan faith. In result of this sin, she became pregnant and gave birth to Pearl, who becomes the highlight of Hester’s life. Dimmesdale’s sin as recently explained was adultery as well. He as the priest was looked upon as the most honorable man in the community and was supposed to be considered sinless.…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the book, The Scarlet Letter it tells the tale of a woman who committed adultery with a man who she falls desperately in love with, a baby is born out of complete and utter sin. A woman who was outcasted by society, and lived a life of torment but what drives us really insane to where every flaw is cast to those around us. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses characterization to reveal Dimmesdale's central flaw, is selfishness. Hawthorne uses characterization to reveal Dimmesdale's central flaw, selfishness. Selfishness is when you think of completely nothing other than yourself, you do not put others before you, the only thing you are worried about is yourself and how the situation affects you. This flaw is the biggest flaw because…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There are a lot of characters that change throughout the story; one of them is Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale engaged in doing a big sin in the puritan society he lived in, Dimmesdale slept with another man’s wife, Hester Prynne and she became pregnant. Hester got punished for doing this sin but Dimmesdale did not admit to committing the sin, so instead he lives with guild and it builds up which makes it worse for him because he is a puritan minister. Since Dimmesdale does not commit to the sin to the public, he instead inflicts humiliation upon himself in private because he isn't punished by the public for committing the sin of adultery. The place where Dimmesdale transforms most throughout the story seems to always be at the same place; The Scaffold.…

    • 131 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dimmesdale’s symbol changes throughout the entire book. It starts off by him symbolizing a holy figure since he is the reverend so the Puritan society looks up to him and they don’t expect him to commit a sin. For the most part, he symbolises hypocrisy, in chapter 3, he states “What can thy silence do for him, except to tempt him---yea, compel him, as it were---to add hypocrisy to sin?” (page 65). He knows what what will happen to him if he keeps his sin to himself, but at that point in the book he’s already afraid to let the townspeople know. He goes to preach every week on how bad his sin is and how bad of a person he is but he still keeps it to himself. Since the townspeople don’t know about his sin, they still look up to him as if he were…

    • 175 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    First of all, the major difference between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale’s sins is their motives for doing so. When Dimmesdale has the affair with Hester, although there was no clear motive for doing so, it might have been because of love. With Chillingworth, he was only torturing Dimmesdale as revenge. Dimmesdale never planned on committing a sin like how Chillingworth deliberately planned on sinning because he had been conjuring in his mind a plan on how to…

    • 233 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    After watching “The Scarlet Letter”, teenagers can learn that if a sin is committed there will always be punishment. For example, Dimmesdale did not confess that he was Pearl’s father. He did not get his public shame, until he stood on the scaffold, but he would secretly whip himself until he bled, and he burned an “A” onto his chest which symbolized adultery. The whole time Dimmesdale knew that what he was doing was wrong, but it took him a very long time until he confessed, and when he did confess he died on the scaffold next to Hester. If Dimmesdale had confessed originally he probably would not have been punished so severely.…

    • 113 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Chillingworth finds the letter A on Dimmesdale’s chest he is freaked because he knows who the father of his child is. This is important for many reasons the main one being that Dimmesdale has cause himself great bodily harm. This is showed when “Laid his hand…eye……” (95). This shows that he has caused himself great bodily discomfort. Another way in which he shows that his body is being destroyed is when he whips himself with a whip constantly. This is showed when “and thus while standing…bodily pain” (102). Dimmesdale destroys his soul constantly and this time it is by being remorse and cowardice. This is explained when “Why, then, had he come hither?...the agony of heaven-defying guilt and vain repentance” (101). This shows that Dimmesdale completely destroys him self in so many different…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dimmesdale, the personification of "human frailty and sorrow," is young, pale, and physically delicate. An ordained Puritan minister, he is well educated, and he has a philosophical turn of mind. There is no doubt that he is devoted to God, passionate in his religion, and effective in the pulpit. He also has the principal conflict in the novel, and his agonized suffering is the direct result of his inability to disclose his sin. In Puritan terms, Dimmesdale's predicament is that he is unsure of his soul's status: He is exemplary in performing his duties as a Puritan minister, an indicator that he is one of the elect; however, he knows he has sinned and considers himself a hypocrite, a sign he is not chosen.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chillingworth comes off as an arrogant, entitled snob who thinks that he is better than everyone else. He seems to put himself a peg higher than even the reverends in the story, which seems to fit his stooped, snooping and conniving character to a tee. He is determined to discover the identity of the man that his wife committed adultery with. Dimmesdale is a self-preservationist at this point in the story. He does not want to be punished because of his high standing in the town, but at the same time, he wants to be found out so that the guilt will stop crushing him. He feels guilt and shame and love for others (as well as himself), whereas Chillingworth feels only his…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every night Dimmesdale is head out his house and start walking to random place without having any acknowledge where the is going. Hester knows something is wrong with Dimmesdale, and she starts talking to Chillingworth about what the did to Dimmesdale. For example, Hester ask Chillingworth, “Hast thou not tortured him enough?” and he said, “No!-no!-He has but increased the debt” (163). Chillingworth keeps add up Dimmesdale debt because Dimmesdale was lying to Chillingworth when they were a best friend, and that made him feel being treachery. The only way that Dimmesdale debt is payoff is when he die because Chillingworth cannot torture him…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It’s easy to think she does because she became an adulteress and faced a novel’s worth of guilt and shame for him. She never seems to resent him for making her face ignominy by herself. In fact, she is deeply concerned for his health and even offers to run away with him: “Thou shalt not go alone!”(136). Though all these actions seem like proof of love, I think Hester does these things for other reasons.…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dimmesdale's Confession

    • 206 Words
    • 1 Page

    Unlike Hester, Dimmesdale chose to hide his sin from the public, and, as a result, his guilt grew immensely as time went on which would eventually amount to his death. Dimmesdale’s guilt from his sin of adultery had been steadily increasing over the years. Then one night after moving in with Chillingworth, Dimmesdale tried to remedy this by “...inflicting a hideous torture on himself,” (Hawthorne 234) using a bloody scourge to whip himself, but to no avail. Since Dimmesdale’s suffering only continued after this event, it demonstrates how only confession can act as a remedy for his guilt. The weight of Dimmesdale’s guilt only grew stronger after this event destroying until he broke down and confess. After years of torment from his guilt, Dimmesdale…

    • 206 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne the author doesn’t reveal what’s on Dimmesdale’s chest as there are many theories of what’s on his chest and he reveals it in public with Hester. In Hawthorne's novel the Scarlet Letter, an illusion to argue to the truth or reveal on what can be on Dimmesdale’s chest.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays