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Scarlet Letter Theme Essay

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In no better community has there been a perfect display of the effects of guilt, the effects of sin, and sin, punishment, and redemption than in that of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in The Scarlet Letter. Accordingly, these are the themes presented by Nathaniel Hawthorne that are intertwined with the lives of the characters throughout the novel. When considering these presented themes, moral terms, and the circumstances presented, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is the guiltiest character of them all. Hawthorne best exemplifies this through his various use of various rhetorical devices such as allusions, imagery, irony, and juxtaposition of ideas. Hawthorne uses a wide array of rhetorical devices to best accentuate Dimmesdale’s loaded guilt. Some …show more content…

It is ironic that Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is referred to as “[Hester’s] godly pastor” (78) by Hawthorne and “the saint on earth” (216) by the townspeople, when he committed the same sin as Hester, who the town considered an outcast and the ultimate sinner. Not only does this highlight the flaws in the even the most important of people, but this places emphasis on Dimmesdale’s sin, since the situation it is presented in is exceptionally ironic. The author also makes use of juxtaposition of ideas, providing a stark contrast between the youthful Pearl, and the sickly sinner Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale was described as “suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul” (212) whereas Pearl is continually described as attracting sunlight, a symbol of innocence. This is shown in the quotes: “Pearl stood, looking so steadfastly at them...herself meanwhile, all glorified with a ray of sunshine” (312), “[the sunshine] will not flee from me” (275), and “yonder [Pearl] is, standing in a streak of sunshine.” (306) This stark contrast highlights his sin by continually comparing Pearl, who represents hope and truth, to Dimmesdale, who is a representation his own sin through his actions to the point where Pearl wonders whether Dimmesdale is or is associated with the “Black Man,” which is a euphemism for

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By not confessing to adultery, Dimmesdale retains his reputation, but at the cost of his soul. As a religious leader within the Puritan community, Dimmesdale must exhibit a moral example. Internalizing his guilt offers him a method of maintaining that position. Dimmesdale appears as “pure as new-fallen snow,” (84), but still hidden within him is his sin (84).

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Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, one of the protagonists of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, stands as a highly conflicted character. The source of his divide stems from the consequences of private sins, and is prevalent within the first paragraphs of Chapter 12, “The Minister’s Vigil,” where the narration chronicles Dimmesdale’s surroundings as he dream walks through the town in a state of limbo. He is portrayed as a model citizen who lacks moral imperfections to the general public yet suffers privately from the juxtaposition of his sins to his position within the community. In this specific passage, Hawthorne uses somber diction and imagery to illustrate Dimmesdale’s strife, while portraying his internal conflict through the formation

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Humans have a tendency to conform and often neglect the potential consequences of doing so. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author introduces those consequences through a respected clergyman and sinner named Arthur Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale struggles with his guilty conscience and cowardice to confess his sin which prompts him to abide by societal rules but question himself in private. Dimmesdale’s conflict between outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the novel’s message that everybody must confront their sins or they will fall victim to some form of retribution.

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In fact, in a way, the audience pities and understands Dimmesdale's reasoning. Dimmesdale himself feels an overwhelming sense of guilt due to the fact that there is no atonement in a Puritan society so instead he continuously tortures himself to rid of the guilt he possesses. " Here he had studied and written; here gone through fast and vigil, and come forth half alive, here striven to pray; here borne a hundred thousand agonies" (Hawthorne 333). This quote shows how harshly Dimmesdale was treating himself. In the book it goes on to explain that he fats intensely, whips himself, holds practices in very intense vigils (period of keeping awake during the time spent asleep), and finally scars himself with a letter "A" on his chest.

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Defying his own beliefs, Dimmesdale shares his guilt through his sermons by saying “to reckon all things shadow-like, and utterly devoid of weight or value, that had not its divine essence and the life within their life” ( Hawthorne 119). Dimmesdale saying that to

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Edward C. Sampson’s article, “Motivation in The Scarlet Letter” is a rebuttal against a past articles about the motivation behind Dimmesdale’s confession in the final scenes of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Other critics- one of which includes Anne McNamara argue that Pearl is the sole cause of Dimmesdale 's confession of sins, which Sampson highly disagrees with. He strongly believes that it is Dimmesdale himself who causes his own confession and if any outside force is at fault it would be Hester, certainly not Pearl. Rather than Peals actions, it was Dimmesdale’s “sense of what is right and his feelings of guilt,” says Sampson, that provided a powerful motivation for confession.

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Meanwhile, Dimmesdale suffers in silence as he tries to cope with his sin without being discovered by his fellow Puritans. Through characterization of Dimmesdale and symbolism of the infamous scaffold, Hawthorne clearly contends that while it’s instinctive to want to hide and deny fallibility, if we want to be truly content and free, we must accept our wrongings. Hawthorne uses Dimmesdale’s victory of revealing his sin to his fellow puritan townspeople after long-withholding his misdeeds to argue that his honesty was far more beneficial than his private suffering.

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Hawthorne used to show Dimmesdale’s pain. Throughout the book Dimmesdale experiences many troubling and chilling events. During times of bliss and times of hardship, the minister still “kept his hand over his heart” which symbolizes the suffering and self-loathing that he felt (126). In one of Hawthorne’s illusions, he uses Dimmesdale’s “disease” to further convey the tone of tragedy.

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Both of them, though, have no better reminder of their wrongdoing than the direct result, Pearl. Growing up as a lonely, shunned child, she is not taught standard social rules; she does not understand what is done and what is not done. She has a very unaffected view of right and wrong, seeing straight through Dimmesdale’s pretense, such as when, she rebuffs his embarrassed attempt at friendliness in the forest, “[bathing] her forehead ... until the unwanted kiss was quite washed off” (19.37), yet she is also completely enslaved to her subconscious desires, such that they are for all intents and purposes at the very forefront of her thoughts, overcoming any realistic justifications, as when she frolics on the beach: The child flew away like a bird, and, making bare her small white feet, went pattering along the moist margin of the sea ... and peeped curiously into a pool ... forth peeped at her, out of the pool, with dark, glistening curls around her head, and an elf-smile in her eyes, the image of a maid whom Pearl ... invited to take her hand and run a race with her.

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Perhaps his anguish is greater because he knows how efficacious confession may be(274).” A revitalizing character, Pearl enlighted sin and devotion that existed between Hester and Reverend Dimmesdale. Pearl worked as an extension of Hester and Dimmesdale by linking the bodily and divine triangle; with this action Pearl, hence, provided salvation for Dimmesdale. According to Harold Bloom : “It is only at this point that Hawthorne makes clear the extremity of stakes involved in Pearl,s relationship to her father.

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Pearl, the young girl that came as an effect of the sin of adultery, is in the garden with her mom, Hester Prynne, when she sees Dimmesdale. Pearl notices some burrs and Hawthorne writes, “Taking a handful of these, she arranged them along the lines of the scarlet letter…Hester did not pluck them off” (130). Hester is leaving them on the letter, openly showing the burrs that little Pearl put on her. Suddenly, Pearl sees Mr. Dimmesdale and Hawthorne explains, “...she threw one of the prickly burrs at the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale. The sensitive clergyman sank with nervous dread from the light missile” (130-131).

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Hawthorne presents the effects of their judgment and justice system of the Puritans by displaying Hester and Dimmesdale’s emotional undertaking throughout Hester’s life. Hawthorne calls attention to the fact that Dimmesdale has not come forward about his sins, he is faced with the harsh judgment of himself and feelings of inferiority, by allowing Hester to endure the punishment alone, although both committed the sin (Hawthorne, 531). Hawthorne writes, “A mockery, indeed, but in which his soul trifled with itself” (531). Hawthorne’s word choice of trifled further reinforces the outrage Dimmesdale feels within for committing adultery. Hawthorne implies that Dimmesdale has made a mockery of himself because of his position as a minister.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his world renowned novel The Scarlet Letter, discusses sin and guilt and meditates the idea that hidden, rather than revealed sin, can lead to seemingly endless suffering. In order to enhance the suffering of one of the major characters, who holds hidden sin within himself, Hawthorne develops a sinister antagonist who goes by the name of Roger Chillingworth. In a chapter titled “The Leech”, Hawthorne adopts a foreboding tone, and uses setting and diction in order to achieve his purpose of revealing a truly menacing character.     Beginning with a thorough summary of setting and situation, Hawthorne is able to lay down a foundation for his foreboding tone, which allows him to develop the character of Chillingworth.

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Pearl’s existence is ironic as she is the reason for Hester’s troubles, but she is in fact, the only reason Hester is living. Her rambunctious personality and existence sheds light on Hester’s dark life, “…the splendor of Pearl’s own proper beauty, shining through the gorgeous robes which might have extinguished a paler loveliness, that there was an absolute circle of radiance around her, on the darksome cottage-floor” (Hawthorne 72). Pearl not only serves as a light for Hester, but others, like the minister, are able to see her radiant expressions, “…the minister had described her, like a bright-apparelled vision, in a sunbeam” (Hawthorne 159). Pearl’s ability to shine as a light in people’s lives enables her to be perceptive. She closely observes others and is able to convince them, most importantly, Dimmesdale.

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Pearl feels her mother’s shame and in order for Dimmesdale to achieve salvation he must publicly confess. Dimmesdale finally announces his sin of adultery at the Election Day Procession on the scaffolding. As Dimmesdale was dying, Pearl leans in for a kiss on his lips. Hawthorne states “A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all of her sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father’s cheeks, they were the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it.”

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