Private Suffering In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'

Dan Hyman

Mrs. Jardine

English 10 Period 1

16 March 2023

The Scarlet Letter: How The Burden of Private Suffering Causes Death

As humans undergo their everyday lives, they experience several forms of suffering. However, private suffering is notably the most severe form of punishment. Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates that The Scarlet Letter epitomizes the idea that private suffering is a far more detrimental form of punishment than public shame. Through Reverend Dimmsedale’s anguish and Roger Chillingworth’s plan of retribution, Hawthorne conveys that private suffering is worse than public shame.

Throughout the novel, Hawthorne’s implication that private suffering is worse than public shame is apparent through the development of Arthur Dimmesdale’s

Chillingworth explains to Dimmesdale that if a person dies with a deep secret then serious effects will happen such as the black flower growing from a tombstone. Chillingworth indicates to Dimmesdale that a black flower that he “found growing on a grave, which bore no tombstone… they grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, that he was buried with some hideous secret” (Hawthorne 122). Chillingworth’s portrayal of the flowers conveys how the private suffering he experienced had adverse effects on his life. His experience exemplifies how the impacts of private suffering are far more detrimental to the human condition that those of public shame. His remark to Dimmesdale communicates that private misery will influence one’s life negatively, and the growth of the flowers is due to a lack of revealing wrongdoings while alive. Chillingworth’s statement was meant to convey that the heart was unable to receive remission for its sins which led to the blackened flowers growing out of it. While Chillingworth was in a conversation with Hester about her sinning he articulates that “I have already told thee what I am! A fiend! Who made me so?” (Hawthorne 161). Throughout this meeting between Chillingworth and Hester, he expresses that Hester’s

During Dimmesdale’s sermon the narrator insists that "no man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true” (Hawthorne 203). The narrator calls attention to the idea that after sinning a person can not act in public as if they didn’t sin because they will eventually succumb to the consequences of their actions. Since Chillingworth attempted to act in the open like he was not an adulterer he faced the repercussions, and he was unable to come to terms with it, so he encountered an enormous amount of mental torment. After Dimmesdale died due to his constant individual torment Chillingworth also passes from the same hardship. This is shown when the narrator conveys that “all his strength and energy- all his vital and intellectual force- seemed to at one desert him (Hawthorne 244). Both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth fell victim to their private suffering, and it led to their death. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale were unable to come to terms with their condition, and the overwhelming nature of their internal guilt brought them to their death. During the novel, Hawthorne conveys the message that internal suffering is a far worse form of punishment than external shame because both