Dimmesdale and Chillingworth both have secrets that make them look and act differently, their secrets affect their character and how they do their job. Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl but he doesn 't want to face the same humiliation as Hester did for his sins. Because of his secret he self punishes and fasts, he also preaches better than he did before although his health is failing. Chillingworth’s secret is that he was the husband of Hester while he was away, before she cheated on him. Chillingworth gets uglier and uglier driven by the need to get revenge on Pearl’s father.
Roger Chillingworth plays an important role to the plot of the novel The Scarlet Letter. He is more of a symbol rather than a main character throughout the entire novel. This is due to the fact that he represents how all Puritans should act, at least on the surface. While he is becoming part of a community, he is also planting revenge on Hester and her lover. At first his plot was to reveal Hester’s lover, but that plot turned him into something more vile and evil than before.
Another thing we learn about Dimmesdale is that he is quite envious of Hester. Since she gets to wear her scarlet letter in front of everyone and everyone knows of her sins unlike Dimmesdale who is the only one other than God who knows of the
In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tackles the issue of hiding sins by using Dimmesdale and Chillingworth as pawns to portray his view on sinful secrets. Dimmesdale’s main argument relies on divine powers, while Chillingworth focuses on nature in his argument. Dimmesdale argues that sometimes people want to confess their sins, but cannot because they fear they won’t be able to redeem themselves, so instead of confessing, they just leave their secrets for the divine powers to reveal. While Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are talking about the man from the grave, Dimmesdale points out the fact that “‘he earnestly desired [to reveal his sin] but could not’“ (123). He is able to state that so easily because the man he is actually
The Scarlet Letter is a book filled with characters that are neither always good or always evil. Scarlet Letter, written by a famous Romantic author, compiles his book with characters composed of moral vagueness. One of those characters is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is such an engaging character because he is the minister of the town, but also has committed adultery with Hester Prynne and hides it from the community. In being a minster lying and committing adultery are not qualities many other clergymen possess.
In Chapter 9 Hester and Pearl were going out to the forest to meet up with Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale has not found peace, only but pain and sadness. Even though Hester was suppose to keep secrets she told Dimmesdale right in his face that the doctor Chillingworth was Hester’s husband, then she went on and told Dimmesdale all about the doctor that she was suppose to keep a secret. Hester took off the scarlet letter and called out for Pearl to say that the minister was her father. She reacted very different because she wanted to be a public thing not a secret.
This again shows that he is not afraid to be with Hester through this ordeal. Dimmesdale is also shown in the book to be a generally a nice person. An example of this is is throughout the book, he tries to get more involved in Pearl’s Life as he sees that they are precious moments with his daughter. Another example is when Dimmesdale says to everyone publically he has committed the sin of adultery. Instead of reporting him to the authorities and having him punished, they congratulate him for being holy as he’s always been.
However, Dimmesdale belittles Hester’s suffering while punishing himself out of shame, revealing his narcissistic tendencies. Dimmesdale is unsympathetic towards Hester, often belittling her pain and
The Scarlet Letter Essay “All that guilty sorrow, hidden from the world, whose great heart would have pitied and forgiven, to be revealed to him, the Pitiless, to him, the Unforgiving! All that dark treasure to be lavished on the very man, to whom nothing else could so adequately pay the debt of vengeance!” (Hawthorne 111). Without doubt, throughout The Scarlet Letter Roger Chillingworth is been a very flat character in the sense that even from his first appearance in chapter three until chapter twenty-four when he drops dead his mission was to get revenge on Pearl's father.
Dimmesdale can't escape the guilt of committing adultery with hester so he doesn't admit to it. So he doesn't ruin his reputation with the townspeople. He doesn't want the town to know of his sins. Instead he decides to make himself miserable just so he doesn't
Many characters from The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, changed throughout the progression of the novel, — including Chillingworth, Hester, and even Pearl herself. No character, however, has changed as much as Dimmesdale has. Towards the beginning of the novel, Dimmesdale tries to ignore his sinful actions. Near the middle of the book, the clergyman, with the ‘help’ of Chillingworth, is able to realize his wrongdoings, and starts obsessively thinking of those wrongdoings. Around the end of the novel, with the help of the forest’s freedom, is able to finally repent correctly for his sin.
The narrator states, "Arthur Dimmesdale gazed into Hester's face with a look in which hope and joy shone out, indeed, but with fear betwixt them, and a kind of horror at her boldness, who had spoken what he vaguely hinted at, but dared not to speak" (Hawthorne 138). Nevertheless, his moral development continuously stays at Stage 1 "Obedience and Punishment Orientation" because yet again his actions are selfish. He is more considerate about his
In the romantic novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays Roger Chillingworth as the prime example of pure evil. Chillingworth is characterized as a symbol for evil because Hawthorne illustrates him and his thoughts as being associated with the devil and Hell. Through Hawthorne’s descriptions, Chillingworth’s malevolent ideas and eagerness to expose Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale are revealed. Consequently, Chillingworth serves as the antagonist in the novel because of his plot to seek vengeance on and torment Dimmesdale. Through the use of figurative language and syntax, Chillingworth’s description and his actions symbolize him as a mysterious and wild evil doing the devil’s bidding.
The Bible is a book that is filled with knowledge and truth that many people follow today. Despite all of the applicable wisdom the Bible contains, it also brings about many questions that are left unanswered to this day. The book of Genesis is filled with such questions that can make one’s head hurt if thought about for too long. One of those questions that is constantly asked and answered differently is: Who is the God of Israel in the book of Genesis? What makes this question especially difficult to answer is the fact that there are two different names for God used in Genesis as well as the fact there is more than one source used to write Genesis. With that said, throughout the book of Genesis, the God of Israel is depicted as a just,
Dimmesdale sinned with Hester Prynne by committing adultery. Although this was terrible and looked down upon, his crime was self inflicting and done out of passion. After Hester was punished for the crime, Dimmesdale was overwhelmed with guilt and sadness. This showed that Dimmesdale was a good person
