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Scarlet letter hester character analysis
Scarlet letter hester character analysis
Analysis of the character of hester prynne
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Dimmesdale suffers differently from Hester, because while she “bore it all” to the townspeople (181), his fears forced him to hide his sin, living a life full of “nothing but despair” (177). Hester, though made a social pariah of the town, has a more honest and healthy way of dealing with her sin. Because Hester is forced to face her wrongdoings under the watchful eye of her Puritan neighbors, she did not have the same guilt of secrecy that Dimmesdale did. Dimmesdale, by hiding his sin, allows himself to become a captive to his guilt. The way that Dimmesdale dealt with his guilt was unhealthy for him, both mentally and physically.
Even though only one person that he knows of, Hester, knows his sin, he still is going insane from the misconduct he did. Dimmesdale cannot be freed of his private guilt that is driving him crazy. Dimmesdale is noticeable being damaged by the suffering of keeping his guilt private. After Hester and Dimmesdale discuss their plans to runaway together, in the woods, Dimmesdale returns to the town with a new attitude. He grasps the
Guilt tortures from within. No one can escape from their own thoughts and speculation. Regret eats away at their insides until it completely destroys them. Generally, people try to mask their shame, which only leads to more pain. Nobody likes to admit that they have made a mistake, and we often refuse to share our mistakes with others.
“And the infectious poison of that sin had been thus rapidly diffused throughout his moral system” (Hawthorne 174). In The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale serves as the holiest person many people meet in their moral lifetime, and as the purest embodiment of God’s word. However, Dimmesdale has a wounding secret, a cancer, that tears his soul apart throughout his time in America. Dimmesdale falls prey to sin in a moment of passion with Hester, resulting in her condemnation by the townspeople, and the birth of their child, Pearl. For years, Dimmesdale’s life is defined by an internal conflict - his job demands his purity in the eye of the townspeople, but he desires the acceptance of herself that Hester achieves through her sin being made public.
In the book The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrated Dimmesdale suffering and regret over the years that build him up and lead him to many obstacles and challenges that killed him in the inside. Also, Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts the agony of Dimmesdale`s conscience as his guilt that is eating away at him until he confesses. In addition, Dimmesdale’s faces many obstacles and challenges that killed him and eat him from the inside. For example, of a challenge that he faces is not confessing to Hester Prynne up front to the townsfolks that he was Hester partner in the affairs. Another example is that when Hester walk up on stage and confess that she was responsible for the adultery and while she was talking, she has
Guilt lead Dimmesdale to whip himself, starve himself, and possibly carve the scarlet letter into himself. His health depletes rapidly after Hester is publically shamed but he is allowed to continue his normal daily life. This creates unrest in Dimmesdale, he feels that he also deserves a punishment. Therefore, one night, Dimmesdale in his state of omnipresent guilt, goes to the scaffold, the one that Hester was publicly shamed on. While traveling
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the illustration of guilt as portrayed as a feeling of responsibility or remorse for a wrong doing. In the novel, it exemplifies different types of guilt, such as guilt being cause by physical activity, someone doing wrong to God or religion, and a situation of something having intentions on doing harm to someone. For example, Dimmesdale commits a sinful act of adultery with Hester, who later leaves Hester and Pearl to suffer alone while he remains known as a hero in his village. By Dimmesdale not confessing his guilt and internalizing it for a long period of time, he ultimately ends up impairing his life for not confessing and admitting his deadly sin. Guilt has three attributes as to how it can
As he takes his last breaths in Hester's arms, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale exclaims, “God knows; and He is merciful! He hath proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. Had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost for ever”. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale is tormented endlessly by remorse and the repression of his sin. Because of this, in his final moments, he is driven to reveal to the townspeople that he is the father of Pearl, finally relieving the guilt he burdened himself with for seven years.
People often ask if guilt leads to repentance. Nathaniel Hawthorne shows that it does within his novel “A Scarlet Letter.” Through the novel, Reverend Dimmesdale is slowly eaten away by the guilt that resonates in his conscience from not admitting to his fowl play alongside Hester, as she carries the weight of the sin on her own throughout the novel by being excluded from the Puritan Society wearing a scarlet letter on her bosem. Overcome by guilt, grief, and self hatred, Reverend Dimmesdale conquers his subconscious fears by purifying his heart. Dimmesdale is filled with guilt throughout the entirety of the novel.
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne exposes the blindness of the Puritan people through the treatment of Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale’s external characters. Hester Prynne is labeled as an adulteress and mistreated by society because of their unwillingness to see her true character. Chillingworth, the husband of Hester, leads the town to believe he is an honorable man and skillful doctor, when his true intents root from his vindictive nature Finally, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester’s lover and the father of her baby, acts as the perfect man therefore the town views him as an exemplar model, while he is truly a sinner. In the novel, Hawthorne portrays Hester as a strong, resilient woman, though the members of her community
It reveals how the character Dimmesdale evolves as time progresses, in the beginning he asks Hester to stand with him so he can confess his sins but only for a minute because he doesn't want to admit the sin. This adds to the guilt that increases with time but also foreshadows his final coming out with the truth and death caused by this action. Hester's past will always be apart of her although others have forgotten about the sin that tore her life apart. The scarlet letter becomes apart of her and also turns into a symbol of redemption and how she overcame the difficulties in her life. Although she was emotionally tormented as a young woman she was able to overcome and become a light to others.
The Hidden Sin and The Revealed Sin As humans, we live in the that are brimming with sins and evil desire. As the creator of all the creatures, God, sent his only son to save the people from the control of devil. The only thing we have to do is to acknowledge our mistake. Bible teach us that we should tell the truth to God and your neighbors, and God will forgive you. But people are worse, they not only hide the sin and their evil behaviors but also try to deny it.
Shame Is Lame What is guilt? Every human being has experienced some form of guilt, whether that be forgetting something, lying, or even doing something that is known to go against what is “right.” Guilt is defined as, “recognizing that one of your actions was wrong and may have caused someone else harm.
Based on the topic of the research, the anatomical structure that will be discussed is the pelvic bone of the modern whale, and the evidence of evolution that exists in the structure that lost its vestige. According to an online article by Brian Switek for the “Smithsonian”, an estimated 375 million years ago (mya) vertebrates that had arms and legs, known as the first tetrapods, made their out from one ecosystem (swamp) to another (terrestrial), to roam about. Dinosaurs remained the superior invertebrates during the time (Eocene period), the first group of mammals had evolved an estimated 200mya; during this interval, they became diverse, but small in size until terrestrial dinosaurs became extinct 65mya. Due to this incident, the major radiation (derived from the term, “Evolutionary Radiation”, is defined as the increase of diverse species from an ancestral species into different forms) occurred, which led to the first whales to evolve from the tetrapods that made their way out of the swamp ecosystem.
The Scarlet Letter covers much pain but the underlying romance throughout provides readers with a little happiness. Throughout the book, readers are rooting for the future romance between Hester and Dimmesdale. In being exposed to Dimmesdale’s extreme guilt as well as Hester’s constant suffering, everyone desires the happy ending where they run away together in order to make better life. The underlying tone being romance and devotion, Hawthorne continuously plays on the idea of forbidden love. He subtly expresses this idea through Dimmesdale’s emotional remarks such as “love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world” (Hawthorne, 282).
