Hester's Ethos In The Scarlet Letter

Throughout Hawthorne’s novel, a direct connection can be made through narration and the events that supposedly a “pure” man has to encounter. Hawthorne encourages you to take a deeper look in the nature of sin and the corruption surrounding religion. To add ingratiate his plot and to distance himself from the narrator, Hawthorne uses a story-in-story approach to further insure his credibility, increasing the author’s ethos. Regarding his position on the nature of sin and corruption of religion, Hawthorne is not for the Puritan Church of Salem because of the corruption within the system. During chapter three, with the prior knowledge of Hester Prynne’s sin, Hawthorne exposes Minister Dimmesdale as the father and lover of Hester. From this point forward it is understood on what basis Hawthorne takes religion. Although Governor Bellingham calls upon Dimmesdale to tell the truth in Chapter 3 exclaiming, “Good Master Dimmesdale,...the responsibility of this woman's soul

In examining logos, one will notice Dimmesdale’s position as a reverend and one can make the conclusion that should his sin be exposed, he will lose the position of high stature within the church. The Puritan society of Salem would not respect the reverend if he had committed the crime of adultery and his sin would have been made public for the people to deal with. Continuing with pathos, one will watch the young reverend endure the effects of his sin undercover for most of the book. It is as if he wishes to take Hester’s sins, but he realizes the consequences to his position. Although the reverend believes he can remove himself from the sin, it begins to age him from the inside and causes an internal war between himself, his beliefs, and his public position. By analyzing ethos, we can understand Dimmesdale’s wish to do the right thing, but afraid at the price he will