STEAL: The Scarlet Letter Romeo, Juliet, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Scarlett O’Hara, Rhett Butler, Odysseus, and many others are examples of well known and well loved characters. They are well loved in part because of the amazing stories they are in, and in part due to the authors’ wonderful characterizations of them. Authors commonly use five things to characterize their characters; speech (what the character says), thoughts (what the character thinks), effect on others (how do the other characters react to the character), actions (what the character does), and looks (what is the character’s appearance). In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses these elements and masters characterization. Some might say that Hawthorne’s use of stereotype diminishes his mastery of characterization. For example, Roger Chillingworth, the villain of …show more content…
He is characterized as a humble, pious, upstanding member of the Puritan community. Hawthorne shows the reader Dimmesdale’s thoughts through his inner conflict. On one hand he wants his immorality with Hester to be discovered, but on the other he is afraid of the way the Puritans might react. Dimmesdale has a profound impact on the puritan community. They put him on a pedestal (metaphor), as shown on page 131 “Some declared, that, if Mr. Dimmesdale were really going to die, it was cause enough, that the world was not worthy to be any longer trodden by his feet.” Throughout the book we see a caring aspect to Dimmesdale when he defends Hester and protects Pearl. One example of this is at the Governor's house when the leaders of the community are considering taking Pearl away from Hester. Dimmesdale is characterized at the end of the book as courageous and forgiving; courageous, because he stood up in front of the crowd and brought his sin to light; forgiving, because he forgave Chillingworth for all the torture he experienced because of him