Who Is Arthur Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter

Arthur Dimmesdale is a respected man. He is the puritan minister in The Scarlet Letter, and the community looks up to him. But he has a secret that no one but Hester Prynne knows. He is the father of her child, and confessing to his sin will cost him everything. In the beginning, we see Dimmesdale as a weak but religiously strong man, he is seen as cowardly through his avoidance of confessing of his sin. As the book progresses Dimmesdale grows weaker and stronger as his sin consumes him. Dimmesdale relies on his faith to carry him through, but soon his faith condemns him. He is a tricky character because throughout the novel, Arthur Dimmesdale grew negatively and positively. As stated earlier, Arthur Dimmesdale is the minister in The Scarlet Letter. So it is safe to say, that he is a religiously faithful man. He is described as pale and physically weak, with a tremendously sweet but broken voice. From the beginning, the reader can draw conclusions that Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl, considering the way he protects Hester from punishment, and pushes her to reveal the name of her lover. It is known that if Dimmesdale were to out himself as Pearl’s father, he would lose his job, title, and

He starts punishing himself for committing such an act, and not confessing. He tries to make amends for his sins by physically mutilating himself with a whip, and depriving himself of food and sleep for several days at a time; “...inward trouble drove him to practices more in accordance with the old, corrupted faith of Rome than with the better light of the church in which he had been born and bred. In Mr. Dimmesdale's secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge. Oftentimes, this Protestant and Puritan divine had plied it on his own shoulders, laughing bitterly at himself the while, and smiting so much the more pitilessly because of that bitter laugh.” Chapter 11. Although a coward for hiding his sin, he is very