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Sin In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

673 Words3 Pages

The Scarlet Letter is based around sin and its effects. Different characters deal with their sins in different ways. Some show it in a subtle way and for others it is much more evident. Dimmesdale’s life is a good example of the effects of sin on people. This can be seen in the guilt he feels, the way he falls into farther temptation, and how his sin affects his relationship with others.
Dimmesdale, a young minister, and Hester Prynne committed adultery together. Hester was forced to bear her shame publicly whereas Dimmesdale’s sin went unknown. This did not save him from internal turmoil however. He was filled with great guilt and anxiety. The Scarlet Letter talks about these feelings. “He had striven to put a cheat upon himself by making the avowal of a guilty conscience, but had gained only one other sin, and a self-acknowledged shame, without the momentary relief of being self-deceived”(Hawthorne 99). He wanted to admit that he was not this saintly person everyone saw him to be. This absence of a confession only brought further …show more content…

He was seen in his community as a person to look up to and trust because of his kindness and Puritan morals. After he falls farther and farther into sin it changes how he treats people. There are a couple of times he acts apon temptation leading him to treat people poorly rather than with his usual warmth. “So-with a mightier struggle that he had yet sustained-he held his Geneva cloak before his face, and hurried onward, making no sign of recognition, and leaving the young girl to digest his rudeness”(Hawthorne 150). At this point his sin is no longer just effecting him but the people around him. Dimmesdale was always seen as a living saint which obviously made people look up to him. This change in personally could make people lessen their trust and respect for him and could also make impressionable people follow in his

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Dimmesdale’s Guilt In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, admitting guilt opens oneself to sin. When Hester admits to being guilty of adultery, it condemns her. However, by accepting her condemnation, she saves her soul. On the other hand, Dimmesdale does not confess to his part in the adultery. He keeps his guilt bottled up inside.

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Mentally, his guilt strains his mind, which causes his physical deterioration, and the weakening of his body. As Dimmesdale finally admits his sin to the townspeople, his guilt is lifted, and he is able to release himself from his captivity. Though he deteriorated both mind and body from his guilt, by telling the townspeople of his sin, it was as if “a spell was broken” (238). He no longer needed to force himself to hide his sin, which was what was hurting him. By finally dealing with his sin in a similar way to Hester, Dimmesdale was able to free himself of his self-imposed captivity and

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For seven years, Dimmesdale pretends he is innocent of adultery and gets praises for his faux act. Dimmesdale even says so himself that he feels extremely guilty and would rather share his crime than to keep it in secret. He obviously does not prefer sharing his crime with the public because he waits seven long years to do so. He was too obsessed with what others think and gossip about him.

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He is arrested for witchcraft and for trying to overthrow the court. However, his integrity is perhaps, the most important characteristic that he possesses. For example, when Elizabeth comes to talk to him, he pleads for her forgiveness for his wrongdoings and they forgive each other. He finally fully acknowledged the sin and left his pride aside to offer his most sincere apology. Shortly after, his final action also proved his newly found goodness.

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Dimmesdale also kept his secrets to keep his reputation as the revered so the town won 't judge him. If the people would have found out of what he has done then they would have punished him and possibly execute him. There also the reason of how the people look up to him for advice because he is the revered. He told the town he committed adultery it would also affect his roll of the revered it could make the people perspective on be very bad because of who

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In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hester commits adultery with Dimmesdale and gets pregnant. The worst part about this sin is that this action affects so many people other than Hester. This sin affects two people in particular- Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Her action causes a man of God, Dimmesdale, to become corrupt with many other sins and Chillingworth to become obsessed with revenge. Dimmesdale, a town minister, commits adultery with Hester and is the father of her daughter.

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His life was cleansed of sin due to his spared virginity. dimsdale was once a generous pure man before he committed such a hurtful sin. he was looked up to because he was one individual who possessed purty . “ dimedale half frozen to death ,over whelmed with shame and standing where hester prynne had stood.(hawthorn p,) “DImmesdale is now a hypocrite for doing the same things he judged others for doing He stood in the same spot hester prynne stood for committing a sin with hm. He wanted to feel he was paying for his sins because he knows what he is doing is a very hateful thing.

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Because Dimmesdale fears letting the townspeople down, his guilt festers with the their admiration of

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He was the type that others did not want to anger or have for an enemy. It took a lot to fool him, because he had so much common sense. However, at times his pride

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Dimmesdale starts living with Chillingworth so the doctor can keep the feeble minister ‘healthy’; the doctor, reversely, tries to make Dimmesdale feel conflicted about his morals which leads to Dimmesdale obsessively whipping himself “...on his own shoulders” and“... fast[ing]...in order to purify [his] body… rigorously...until his knees trembled beneath him[self]...” (132). He is enveloped in his sin, and cannot escape it unless he tells the truth. In fact, Dimmesdale could not stop thinking about his sin which “...continued to give Mr. Dimmesdale a real existence [which] was the anguish in his inmost soul” (133).

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In The Scarlet Letter, the strictly Puritan townspeople of Boston view sin as the ultimate and most irredeemable offense. Arthur Dimmesdale, a highly revered minister among the people of Boston, refrains from confessing his adultery to the public for the entirety of seven years. Throughout this expanse of time, Dimmesdale rises to the ministerial pulpit on hundreds of occasions to tell “his hearers that he was altogether vile, a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners, an abomination, a thing of unimaginable iniquity,” but on each occasion, he refuses to fully disclose the details of the sin he has committed (Hawthorne 99). Dimmesdale omits this aspect, fearing that the truth of his adultery will irreversibly destroy the public’s view of his character and his status as minister. Upon the revelation of the scandalous truth, his entire congregation could turn away from him, leading Dimmesdale to withhold the details in hopes maintaining his following.

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He knows that if he reveals what he has done, then his followers will lose their respect for him. He is burdened with his sin; therefore, he inflicts pain upon himself for his wrongdoing. Dimmesdale goes as far as having vigils all night, being tortured by “diabolic shapes,” and emaciating and whipping himself. Dimmesdale punishes himself because he wants to repent for the sin that he has committed.

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Because of the effects that Dimmesdale’s sin has on Chillingworth, the town suffers as well. The betrayal of their pastor leads them to refuse to see the truth when he pleads for the public to see his guilt at the end of the novel, and his secrecy from the people that adore him is one of the slyest and vile parts of his sin. The blind faith that the public has in their reverend is mislead by his deceit, which causes his sin to grow to a scale that Hester’s never did. Dimmesdale also harmed Pearl, by not standing with her and Hester on the day they were condemned. When she is grown, she asks, “Doth

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As the moving of story, the “side effect” of the hidden sin has reveal. Dimmesdale become more sick and powerless. As the end of the story, Dimmesdale concede the sin and died as the winner of the fight with hidden sin. Dimmesdale as a combination of saint and sinner, his sin is not committed adultery, but it is that he cannot face the sin and admit it. He wanted to be all perfect in the eyes of the masses, but destroyed his perfectly in the eyes of God.

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In the last few chapters after Dimmesdale and Pearl meet in the forest, we see that The minister's glow and passion were nothing like they were, it was all gone. “Yet Dimmesdale himself was a mere shrunken shell of the person he had once been. The glow of passion and fervor that had reddened his cheek in the meeting house was gone. Now his cheeks were chalk, and his face looked more like a deathmask than a living thing”(p.142) His guilt builds up tremendously throughout the story, causing him to even inflict self harm in the form of “The Scourge” a whip with many threads that had sharp edges, used as corporal punishment, or self inflicted by members of church for spiritual discipline.

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