Reverend Dimmesdale In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Dimmesdale is struggling with publicizing his sin so that he can seek forgiveness. Dimmesdale and hester have committed adultery, and Pearl is the result. He also struggles because the community keeps referring to him as a holy man because he is a minister of the town, but no one knows the truth except Hester. As the storyline progresses in The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Dimmesdale is a silent sufferer, then a secret, guilt-ridden sinner, and finally a tortured, broken confessor.
In the first scaffold scene Reverend Dimmesdale is a silent sufferer, and he just sits back and watches what is going on. Dimmesdale is very ashamed of the sin he has committed; therefore, he does not want …show more content…
By this time Dimmesdale knows how much pain Hester has been in, and how hard it has been for her not to tell people that is was Dimmesdale. Pearl asks Dimmesdale when he is going to join her on the scaffold, and he says “At the great judgment day,” whispered the minister—and, strangely enough, the sense that he was a professional teacher of truth impelled him to answer the child so. “Then, and there, before the judgment seat, thy mother, and thou, and I, must stand together. But the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting!” (Hawthorne 149). Pearl knows that Dimmesdale is her father, and she is confused as to why he is not standing with her and Hester on the scaffold. This makes Dimmesdale feel more guilty because now he knows he is not telling the whole truth and he is being questioned by Pearl why he is not standing with them. Dimmesdale does mark himself, he marks himself with an “A” on his chest under his clothing. No one knows he is doing this until he falls asleep and Chillingworth lifts up his shirt and sees that he marking himself with this “A”. Chillingworth goes and examines him, “But what distinguished the physicians ecstasy from Satan’s was the trait of wonder in it” (Hawthorne 136). This proves that Dimmesdale feels guilty about what he does and he is mentally and physically going through more pain than Hester has to go
In the first scaffold scene Reverend Dimmesdale is a silent sufferer, and he just sits back and watches what is going on. Dimmesdale is very ashamed of the sin he has committed; therefore, he does not want …show more content…
By this time Dimmesdale knows how much pain Hester has been in, and how hard it has been for her not to tell people that is was Dimmesdale. Pearl asks Dimmesdale when he is going to join her on the scaffold, and he says “At the great judgment day,” whispered the minister—and, strangely enough, the sense that he was a professional teacher of truth impelled him to answer the child so. “Then, and there, before the judgment seat, thy mother, and thou, and I, must stand together. But the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting!” (Hawthorne 149). Pearl knows that Dimmesdale is her father, and she is confused as to why he is not standing with her and Hester on the scaffold. This makes Dimmesdale feel more guilty because now he knows he is not telling the whole truth and he is being questioned by Pearl why he is not standing with them. Dimmesdale does mark himself, he marks himself with an “A” on his chest under his clothing. No one knows he is doing this until he falls asleep and Chillingworth lifts up his shirt and sees that he marking himself with this “A”. Chillingworth goes and examines him, “But what distinguished the physicians ecstasy from Satan’s was the trait of wonder in it” (Hawthorne 136). This proves that Dimmesdale feels guilty about what he does and he is mentally and physically going through more pain than Hester has to go