What Is Dimmesdale's Suffering In The Scarlet Letter

To those who have committed sin or have participated in wrongdoings, the safe cover of privacy is often regarded as a haven. Enduring the ignominy of judgemental peers is seemingly the most significant fear they must face. However, it must be argued whether the internal battle one faces trying to conceal fraudulence is even more worthy of fear. Those who seek refuge in hiding their transgressive truths encounter more self-inflicted suffering than those who publically accept retribution. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne has committed adultery with a clergyman, Arthur Dimmesdale, in the time of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. When Hester becomes pregnant while her husband has been away for over two years, she is publicly

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. In the beginning of the novel, Hawthorne describes Hester’s character immediately as he illustrates the first scaffold scene, “With a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, [Hester] looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown … appeared the letter A” (50). The diction Hawthorne uses in the words “burning” and “haughty” conveys not only Hester’s shame but also her triumph in letting her sin be out in the open. The shame is burning as her cheeks blush, but the haughty smile she wears

Hester faced daily ostracization and ignominy while Dimmesdale was revered as a holy and pure being. In public functions, Hester was never associated with. This is evident in the quote, “As was usually the case wherever Hester stood, a small, vacant area—a sort of magic circle—had formed itself about her, into which, though the people were elbowing one another at a little distance, none ventured, or felt disposed to intrude. It was a forcible type of the moral solitude in which the scarlet letter enveloped its fated wearer… by the instinctive, though no longer so unkindly, withdrawal of her fellow-creatures” ( ) Hester’s fellow townspeople recognize Hester as a good person, but because her sins were revealed, they shun and exclude her. In contrast, Dimmesdale is thoroughly loved and cherished as he has not confessed to his misdemeanors. The adoration for the young minister is conveyed in a scene wherein Dimmesdale encounters a young woman while walking through town. In the scene, Hawthorne reveals, “The minister knew she had enshrined him in her heart, where she hung pure white curtains around his image—giving religion the warmth of love, and love the purity of religion” () While one could argue that this view of Dimmesdale is evidence that revealing sin is not