Reverend Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter

Throughout the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne keeps his main focus on the character’s development and how they change/grow throughout the novel. Reverend Dimmesdale was a crucial character all throughout this novel. Dimmesdale, among other characters, showed much change, referring to the way he began to react towards other citizens, and growth, referring to his outcome at the end of the novel. There was abundant self-hate, irony, and guilt within Dimmesdale. Reverend Dimmesdale was a leader of the community, but also a sinner. He put on a different face for the citizens because he was a leader, but in reality he should have not been a leader. Growth can be shown in multiple ways, and change can happen for many reasons. Guilt is something that can ruin who you are as a person. It can eat away at you until you finally confess. “Mr. Dimmesdale was a true priest, a true religionist, with the reverential sentiment largely developed, and an order of mind that impelled itself powerfully along the track of creed, and wore its passage continually deeper with the lapse of time,” (Hawthorne 112). Dimmesdale is full of guilt, because he is a leader of the community and was true to his religion, yet he still committed the substantial sin. Not only did he commit the sin, but he continues to keep it hidden from his community. Dimmesdale is supposed to be true to the work that he does, and guilt is what he should feel for hiding who he truly is. “Whom would they discern there, with the red eastern light upon his brow? Whom,

The sin Dimmesdale committed, did not define who he was as a person. Although the sin changed who he was as a leader, Dimmesdale still realized who he was as a person. Dimmesdale confessed himself publicly, releasing all of his guilt. If Dimmesdale were to keep his sin a secret, it shouldn’t have taken much toll upon the community and the citizens, because it was his