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Dimmesdale's Sin In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Which is more important, to admit one’s sins to the public or keep one’s faults to oneself? In this novel, it is better to admit to one's errors because it takes a lesser toll on one’s physical, mental, and spiritual state. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reverend Dimmesdale, the clergyman, suffers the most pain because he hides his sin from the rest of the world. Dimmesdale shows physical signs of pain due to his inward suffering and guilt. As Hester pressures Dimmesdale to let her keep Pearl, Hester describes Dimmesdale’s appearance as, “careworn and emaciated” and “his large dark eyes had a world of pain in their troubled and melancholy depth”(133-134). This example proves that the stresses and pressures of Dimmesdale's sin has aged him. The townspeople view Dimmesdale …show more content…

When Hester and Dimmesdale are talking in the forest, and Pearl is playing nearby, he thinks aloud, “‘Dost thou think the child will be glad to know me?’ asked the minister, somewhat uneasily. ‘I have long shrunk from children, because they often show a distrust, -a backwardness to be familiar with me. I have been afraid of little Pearl!’ ”(244). Dimmesdale becomes anxious when talking with Hester about meeting his daughter, Pearl. He has nervous emotions towards officially meeting Pearl and the anticipation of meeting her causes Dimmesdale additional mental stress. While on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl, Dimmesdale, pretends to speak to the people of New England, “I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with this woman, whose arm, more than the little strength wherewith I have crept hitherward, sustains me, at this dreadful moment, from grovelling down upon my face!” (305). After seven years, Dimmesdale realizes he made a mistake. He has a revelation that he should have stood with Hester when she was publically shamed, this causes him guilt as shown through his

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