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Light In The Scarlet Letter

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Brandon Volmer SLEssay English 11 Period 3 16 November 2017 Underlying Truths Have you ever seen or heard of someone you thought was genuine do something evil? In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, many characters are prime examples of this. All of these characters are hiding a secret in some way throughout the novel. The Scarlet Letter took place in the 17th century in Boston, Massachusetts. The protagonist of this novel, Hester Prynne, along with the other characters has light and dark moments throughout the story. Light and dark imagery, alluding to the larger conflict between good and evil, is present throughout the novel in the characters of Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Hester had been …show more content…

During the procession on Election Day, Dimmesdale showed himself in a different manner than he usually did. The people observed that, “never, since Mr. Dimmesdale had first set his foot on the New England shore, had he exhibited such energy as was seen in the gait and air with which he kept his pace in the procession…his strength seemed not of the body” (Hawthorne 217). Dimmesdale had a certain spiritual strength in him that he seemed angelic. The readers believe that he had this strength because he was excited to know the secret that Hester hid from him for so long. He was also ready to leave the colony with the woman he loved and start a new life in a new world. Although he seemed very angelic at this time, shortly before the procession, right after he had returned from the forest, he went through a very dark period. “At every step he was incited to do some strange, wild, wicked, thing or other, with a sense that it would be at once involuntary and intentional” (Hawthorne 198). Dimmesdale had to use his most careful self-control in order to refrain himself from making blasphemous comments to the deacon, an eldest female of the church, a sister, and some Puritan children. He thought that maybe he was going through such a dark moment because of the fact that he was running away with Hester. Later, the witch appeared to him and said that she had seen him in the forest. Dimmesdale then worried that maybe he had signed a contract with the devil in the

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He feels he shouldn't be a minister or have people look up to him. On the last day of his life he sees Hester in the woods, they talk and make a plan to runaway together. Leaving, Hester, Dimmesdale feels a million times better. The excitement of Mr. Dimmesdale’s feelings as he returned from his interview with Hester lent him unaccustomed physical energy, (Hawthorne 204). That night he writes his speech to step down as a minister.

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Mary Walker & Charlotte Doyle Born in 1832, Mary Walker was one of the leaders for the women’s rights activist, and also this meant that she was in America. When Mary Walker lived in America she lost her job from the Nullification Crisis that had happened in mid-late 1832. Mary was a nurse during the Civil War and she had received the Medal of Honor for her service. These women were part of something you wouldn’t think a women could do like hanging with sailors/pirates or becoming a war hero for being a healer, so if you set your mind to do anything daring do it.

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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

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A man named Chillingworth, who claimed to be a doctor, made Dimmesdale feel worse about his secret, Dimmesdale let him get in his head. Reverend Dimmesdale was very weak for being a priest and putting no faith into his God. Reverend Dimmesdale is afraid of his town and his people finding out about his sin. As a priest he wants to seem holy and sinless like the people think him to be, so he hides the fact he and Hester committed adultery. When Hester is on the scaffold, Dimmesdale is asked to try and get Hester to confess who the father is, “If thou feelest it to be for thy soul’s peace, and that thy earthly punishment will be made more

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While everyone around Dimmesdale thinks he is a kind and sensitive sweetheart, Dimmesdale is obviously a jerk from the way he treats Hester. Dimmesdale constantly received compliments about how godly and good he was, and highly respected by the townsfolk. He had “a freshness, and fragrance, and dewy purity of thought, which, as many people said, affected them like tile speech of an angel.” He therefore knew he had enough power over the town in order to allow Hester not to wear the Scarlet

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Dimmesdale’s suffering from his guilt will lead to his mental instability. His madness derives from his inability to let free of his burden of sin. Later on, the townspeople become aware of his decline in health when his preachings become more solemn and quiet due to his lack of strength. The people believed that his suffering and sickness was a trial sent from God to prove his worth.

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The reader is especially made aware of Dimmesdale's mental state in the eleventh chapter, “His inward trouble drove him to practices more in accordance with the old, corrupted faith of Rome, than with the better light of the church in which he had been born and bred” [150]. This suggests that he is racked with immense guilt and shame at the falsehood he is living and suggests that he is physically abusing himself as a result of this guilt. This directly contradicts Chillingworth's mental state of fury and vengeance that he falls deeper into as the story progresses. These two characters also hold striking incongruities as to what drives them onward as the account

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“Why, then, had he come hither? Was it but the mockery of penitence? A mockery, indeed, but in which his soul trifled with itself. He had been driven higher by the impulse of that Remorse which dogged him everywhere” (Hawthorne 138) here dimmesdale can 't face the justice of what he has done wrong which is why the author called him a coward and is the reason why he kept his secrets because he is a coward to admit it to and face the consequences which is why later the guilt of keeping them eats him from the inside.

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With Dimmesdale being able to live with his sin his condition becomes exceptionally better, “The excitement of Mr. Dimmesdale feelings as he returned from his interview with Hester, lent him unaccustomed physical energy and hurried him town ward at a rapid pace. The pathway among the woods seemed wilder more uncouth with its rude natural obstacles and less trodden by the foot of man than he remembered it on his outward journey,” (Hawthorne 148). When he returned to the town and gave his last sermon before he left for England, he saw Chillingsworth within the crowd. Dimmesdale then knew what he had to do in front of all the towns’ people, “God’s eye beheld it! The angels were forever pointing at it!

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It is not visible on the outward appearance, unlike Hester's letter. Dimmesdale begins to hold late-night vigils. He even goes as far as to torture himself. He whips himself as punishment, all in secret. Dimmesdale wants to suffer as Hester has so he goes up to the scaffold as well.

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All that Dimmesdale has to live for his life is serving out his sentence; this is where, Dimmesdale must make a huge decision on whether he should conceal sin, or let his words roam free. When the minister is able to go into the forest, which is a place unlike Puritan society, he is able to talk with Hester, which lets him become his true self: where he is able to come out to the public of his

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This only made his guilt worsen. Dimmesdale does not feel passionate when he is trying to do job. The people are only imagining getting help because his tainted soul could not possibly redeem other souls. He feels as if he is cheating those people in their faith. Hester then tries to rebuttal by saying “Your present life is not less holy, in very truth, than it seems in people's eyes.

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Throughout the story, it is clear that he wants to confess his sin, when he is yelling at the scaffold at night but he’s too weak to do it publicly. The interactions between Hester and Dimmesdale show her hold over him because she has been publicly condemned for a sin that they had committed together. His inability to reveal and accept the truth makes him extremely weak. When Dimmesdale decides to reveal the truth during his Election Day speech, he passes away because he had waited too

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Dimmesdale’s guilt also caused him to confess on the scaffold where Hester stood at the beginning of the novel. This being the end of his journey of guilt and torture, he most likely knew he was not going to make it much longer, even if he left with Hester and Pearl to Europe like they had planned, so he wanted to be able to stand with her in front of everybody,

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In Dimmesdale not confessing and facing a punishment in the eyes of the church as well as the townspeople, causing him to take to his own means, while Hester is able to face a punishment. Dimmesdale does what he believes is right for his punishment by doing acts that damaged his mind and body. Dimmesdale, in creating his own punishment, holds vigils that last all night, fasted to the point that he barely ate anything at all, beat himself, and lost the will to live. Dimmesdale's sin stays with him throughout the book, and the readers see his mind and body deteriorate through his mysterious sickness, while the readers see Hester become a closed off outcast trying to repent. The townspeople in the book see DImmesdale's sickness, and how devoted he is to his faith and begin to believe that he is holy, and an angel sent to sent to save them, while Hester has repented and become able, as well as an

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