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Death Of Dimmesdale In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'

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Scarlet Letter Chapter 23 Analysis Essay In chapter 23 the town’s people have just seen the death of Dimmesdale. As they now reminisce on his admission to being Pearls father. Trying now to process what they just seen. In this chapter the revered Dimmesdale is understanding that telling the truth and being punished the towns people was much less of a self-afflicting punishment then keep the secret and having the long suffering of sin slowly kill him. As Dimmesdale conveyed his sermon Hawthorne used enumeration to describe it as “spoken so wise, so high, and so holy spirit”. He did this to show that now that Dimmesdale was freed of the sin and now sounding of such high spirit. And as Dimmesdale share his truth with the people, …show more content…

Doing so knowing that his secret was much more a burden on him then any punishment the town’s people could think of. In the middle of Dimmesdale speech Hawthorne describes him as “one so holy who had ascended before their eyes waxing dimmer and brighter”. Showing that his message was so powerful in the truth that they saw him as if he were glowing. The message was so power full that “the devil knew it well and fretted it”. Through this hyperbole that this message was so strong that it even frightened the devil himself. Using a rhetorical question Dimmesdale asked “may God forgive thee” knowing what he did was wrong, taking full responsibility for what he did hoping that god would forgive him. Knowing one day he would because “God is merciful”. In this simple sentence Dimmesdale said a lot. Not only praying for his own forgiveness but for Chillingworth’s also. Praying that “thanks be to him who halted me hither” using this motif to constantly show that Dimmesdale was not mad at Chillingworth but thankful to him for forcing him into telling the truth and setting himself free. And as Dimmesdale finished his sermon and passed he left the towns people with the rhetorical

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Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, one of the protagonists of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, stands as a highly conflicted character. The source of his divide stems from the consequences of private sins, and is prevalent within the first paragraphs of Chapter 12, “The Minister’s Vigil,” where the narration chronicles Dimmesdale’s surroundings as he dream walks through the town in a state of limbo. He is portrayed as a model citizen who lacks moral imperfections to the general public yet suffers privately from the juxtaposition of his sins to his position within the community. In this specific passage, Hawthorne uses somber diction and imagery to illustrate Dimmesdale’s strife, while portraying his internal conflict through the formation

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In order to reveal Dimmesdale's sorrowful nature. Hawthorne describes the different actions the poor minister takes in order to attempt to atone for his sins such as “[fasting]” and his use of a “bloody scourge” he genuinely believed that this would help to purify himself of his sins and to relieve the burden that he was forced to bear upon his shoulders, however his attempts to atone ultimately lead to even more torment. Hawthorne discloses this by describing Dimmesdale’s visions of the “herd of diabolic shapes, that grinned and mocked at the pale minister” this further reveals the utter anguish that he is going through another example of this is the vision of his mother “turning her face away as she passed by” the emotional

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His "treatment" for Dimmesdale’s illness only makes Dimmesdale weaker, which is his ultimate revenge. Since the truth about the sin is concealed, Chillingworth is successful in torturing Dimmesdale. Another symptom of Dimmesdale’s hurt is guilt. He knows the truth, and since society does not punish him, because they do not know the truth, he feels that he needs to punish himself by whipping himself with a "bloody scourge" and fasts "until his knees trembled beneath him" (150). This unknown, physical and self-induced punishment is harsh, but since he is too self-concealed to revel his sin, Dimmesdale accepts

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