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Stress In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne takes place in seventeenth century Puritan New England. A young woman by the name of Hester Prynne is found guilty of adultery and must wear a scarlet A as punishment to mark her infidelity. Because of her refusal to reveal the father’s name Hester endures hours of public ridicule. While standing on the scaffold, Hester recognizes a figure standing in the crowd as her husband who had been presumed lost at sea. Upon seeing his wife’s shame he vows to find the child’s father and vows to seek revenge. Keeping his relationship to Hester a secret, and coercing her to do the same, he assumes the name Roger Chillingworth and is welcomed as the new physician to the town. After being released from prison and …show more content…

Dimmesdale’s health begins to fail, Mr. Chillingworth becomes a live-in doctor to provide around the clock care. Upon further conversations with Mr. Dimmesdale, Mr. Chillingworth begins to suspect the ministers illness is the result of psychological stress, some unconfessed guilt. Roger Chillingworth then begins to test his suspicions of what the root of the stress is. With ever-failing health and unable to live with the guilt, Reverend Dimmesdale climbs the scaffold one evening and confesses his sin to Hester and Pearl who happened to be in the town square at night, but he is unable to publicly confess. Realizing the torment her husband was placing on Mr. Dimmesdale, Hester seeks out Mr. Chillingworth and requests that he stop his obsession of revenge. A short time later, Hester arranges to meet the ailing Reverend in the forest to identify her husband and reveal his plans for revenge on him. She removes the scarlet letter and convinces Mr. Dimmesdale to leave for Europe with her and Pearl. Before they are set to leave, Reverend Dimmesdale gives the most inspiring sermon to the townspeople who have gathered for the holiday. After leaving his church, he spots Hester and Pearl in the crowd and instinctively climbs the scaffold with them to publicly confess his sin, dying in Hester’s arms. Hester and Pearl leave for Europe. Chillingworth dies shortly after, leaving his fortune to Pearl. Hester eventually returns to live in her small cottage and wears the scarlet A on

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When Chillingworth visits Hester in prison, he claims that “his [the adulterer] fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands” (53). Chillingworth makes a vow to Hester that he will find the man who enticed her and will destroy the individual’s life and soul. As the novel progresses, Chillingworth establishes himself as the town doctor and Dimmesdale develops a mysterious illness that perplexes and worries the townspeople. His illnesses leads to Roger Chillingworth becoming his medical advisor, “as not only the disease interested the physician, but he was strongly moved to look into the character and qualities of the patient, these two men...came gradually to spend much time together” (84). Chillingworth takes advantage of the fact that Dimmesdale needs medical attention and establishes himself as a friend, with the intention of finding out personal information about Dimmesdale.

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Several days later, Hester meets Dimmesdale in the forest, where she removes the scarlet letter from her dress and identifies her husband and his desire for revenge. In this conversation, she convinces Dimmesdale to leave Boston in secret on a ship to Europe where they can start life anew. Renewed by this plan, the minister seems to gain new energy. Pearl, however, refuses to acknowledge either of them until Hester replaces her symbol of shame on her

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A man named Chillingworth, who claimed to be a doctor, made Dimmesdale feel worse about his secret, Dimmesdale let him get in his head. Reverend Dimmesdale was very weak for being a priest and putting no faith into his God. Reverend Dimmesdale is afraid of his town and his people finding out about his sin. As a priest he wants to seem holy and sinless like the people think him to be, so he hides the fact he and Hester committed adultery. When Hester is on the scaffold, Dimmesdale is asked to try and get Hester to confess who the father is, “If thou feelest it to be for thy soul’s peace, and that thy earthly punishment will be made more

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Hester is penalized for her sin by being imprisoned and being forced to walk in the town carrying her baby, Pearl, while having to stand up on a scaffold to be heavily scorned by all the townspeople. Another part of Hester’s punishment was having to be required to wear a large scarlet red “A” to show everyone her sin. While Hester is up on the scaffold the crowd demands to know who the biological father of the child is, but Hester refuses to give any information to the townspeople about the father. Eventually, the father is revealed, the biological father of Pearl is revealed to be the high priest of the village, Revered Dimmesdale. Hester was through tolerating the cruel treatment towards herself and her child, Hester and Dimmesdale then make a plan of action to run away from the village so they would have the ability to start over and no longer keep their secret love in the shadows.

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Eventually, the stress and pressure in Dimmesdale’s heart lead him to death. In comparison to Dimmesdale’s death, Hester’s ending is way different. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, but Hester eventually comes back to town without Pearl. Hester puts on the letter “A” again, and she starts to help people deal with their mental stress. “But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester's life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with

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Pearl.” (Hawthorne 248). When urging Pearl and Hester to join him, Dimmesdale redeemed himself of his sin while upon the scaffold a second time. As Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl ascended the scaffold, Chillingworth urged the reverend to not confess and live the rest of his life with this sin “followed. . .

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When Hester and Pearl are walking they notice Chillingworth with Dimmesdale. After Pearl throws a prickly burr at Dimmesdale she yells “Come away, Mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away, Mother, or he will catch you!

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Dimmesdale is too cowardly to admit his part in the adultery because of his fears of losing his high status. In front of the townspeople, Dimmesdale preaches to Hester to confess the name of Pearl’s father. The town looks up to him and believes in him because “In this state, the voice of the preacher thundered remorselessly” (Hawthorne 40). As Hester refuses, Dimmesdale tells the town that “She will not speak” to reveal the name of her partner (40). Among the men in the crowd, Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s true husband, is spotted watching as he learns about his wife’s sin.

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