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Who Is Dimmesdale's Suicide In The Scarlet Letter

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Recommended: The scarlet letter, critical analysis

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale struggles to repent from his sin of adultery. Heater Prynne, the woman that he committed adultery with, hides him from being humiliated by the townspeople. However, Arthur Dimmesdale’s guilt begins to take over him, which leads to him having some physical, emotional, and mental pain. When Dimmesdale finally reveals his guilt on the scaffold he dies. In the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Jamshed Khan wrote an article that claims Roger Chillingworth killed Arthur Dimmesdale through the use of atropine poisoning. Chillingworth is a physician that studied various drugs and was also knowledgeable about the medical roots and herbs (Hawthorne 95). Even though Khan’s article was well written, with accurate facts to support his concept, is does not prove that Dimmesdale’s death was a result of him …show more content…

The novel contradicts this theory because Chillingworth himself, has a sick soul. When he finds out that Hester has committed adultery and a baby resulted from it, Chillingworth becomes jealous. Throughout the novel, the evilness in him becomes stronger than ever. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale meet, and Chillingworth gets attached to minister Dimmesdale and wants to be his physician. Chillingworth looks into the personality of Dimmesdale, searching for secrets and thoughts that may provide information of who Hester’s lover is (Hawthorne 114). Chillingworth finds out that Dimmesdale is the secret lover of Hester. He then transforms in to an evil character with the goal of making Hester and Dimmesdale’s lives miserable. In the novel, Chillingworth and Hester discuss about who had mistreated who. Chillingworth says “I shall contrive aught against his life” (Hawthorne 70), his life meaning Dimmesdale’s. This refutes Khans theory because Chillingworth wanted Dimmesdale’s to live long, so he could make Dimmesdale suffer through

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Dimmesdale and Chillingworth both have secrets that make them look and act differently, their secrets affect their character and how they do their job. Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl but he doesn 't want to face the same humiliation as Hester did for his sins. Because of his secret he self punishes and fasts, he also preaches better than he did before although his health is failing. Chillingworth’s secret is that he was the husband of Hester while he was away, before she cheated on him. Chillingworth gets uglier and uglier driven by the need to get revenge on Pearl’s father.

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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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I believe Dimmesdale did enough for forgiveness because in the end of the story, he stood on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl. In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in chapter 23 Hawthorne states; “Hester Prynne," cried he, with a piercing earnestness, "in the name of Him, so terrible and so merciful, who gives me grace, at this last moment, to do what--for my own heavy sin and miserable agony--I withheld myself from doing seven years ago, come hither now, and twine thy strength about me! Thy strength, Hester; but let it be guided by the will which God hath granted me! This wretched and wronged old man is opposing it with all his might!--with all his own might, and the fiend's! Come, Hester--come!

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167 Words | 1 Pages

Then, and there, before the judgment seat, thy mother, and thou, and I must stand together. But the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting!" (Hawthrone 277). This reply Dimmesdale gives to pearl when she asks him why he cannot stay with his mother and her together shows that even though Dimmesdale feels guilt and wants to make things right with Pearl and Hester. However, he still has a constant fear of what the public would think of him and the fear of losing his position in the church/society.

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644 Words | 3 Pages

Was atropine poisoning the cause of Arthur Dimmesdale’s death? In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter one of the three main characters’, Arthur Dimmesdale dies suddenly, although it is not explained in the book exactly how he died, many have theories. In an Article written by Dr. Jemshed A. Khan in the New England Journal of Medicine, he claims that Chillingworth purposely gave doses of atropine to Dimmesdale. Of course Chillingworth was "a man of skill in all Christian modes of physical science” (Hawthorne 65) he was also quite the brainer when it came to “medicinal roots and herbs” (Hawthorne 65), he was a physician, right?

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910 Words | 4 Pages

(125). Chillingworth was not always a bad man, as he says. Hester’s scandal and betrayal hurt Chillingworth deeply, to the point where he became evil and sought revenge. Chillingworth was humiliated, and Dimmesdale and Hester were the two people that had made him that way, which is why he sought

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744 Words | 3 Pages

Desperate for vengeance, Chillingworth “strove to go deep into his patient's bosom, delving among his principles, prying into his recollections, and probing everything with a cautious touch, like a treasure-seeker in a dark cavern. (112-113).” To achieve this, Chillingworth lies about his identity as Hester’s husband, temporarily disregards his fortune and name, gives up his entire life, just so he can live with the object of his obsession, Dimmesdale. As previously mentioned, Chillingworth was so deep-rooted in his vengeance that the devil himself had a grip on his soul. In addition to stating this, he also shows it.

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465 Words | 2 Pages

What are Chillingworth’s intentions? Why is he determined to “nurse” Arthur Dimmesdale back to health? These are just a couple of questions the reader may have about Roger Chillingworth when they read chapter nine, “The Leech”, of The Scarlet Letter. To help reveal Roger Chillingworth’s mysterious character to the reader, Hawthorne uses literary devices such as, metaphor, irony, and similes. Hawthorne uses metaphor to emphasize the length of curiosity Chillingworth has with Dimmesdale’s inner troubles.

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270 Words | 2 Pages

Everyone, at some point in his or her life, has wanted to take revenge on someone. However, revenge is an obsessive, overwhelming response that is ultimately dissatisfying. In the Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth became completely preoccupied with taking revenge on Dimmesdale because he fathered a child with his wife, and through imagery, the gradual change from unpleasant physician to vengeful husband is shown. People say, “revenge is a dish best served cold.”

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693 Words | 3 Pages

Dimmesdale, despairing of life, told Chillingworth that “[he] could be well content, that [his] labors, and [his] sorrows, and [his] sins, and [his] pains, should shortly end with [him], and what is earthly of them be buried in [his] grave”(83).

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356 Words | 2 Pages

In Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale’s cowardice makes him responsible for his own and the other main characters suffering. Dimmesdale is responsible for his own misery. Cowardice is the reason for Dimmesdale’s suffering. Why he doesn't admit to his adultery with hester. Which makes him guilt ridden and he doesn't want to admit that he did it cause he is to high up in society and he doesn't want the rest of the town to see that he has committed the sin of adultery.

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523 Words | 3 Pages

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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978 Words | 4 Pages

While both Chillingworth and Dimmesdale were living together so Chillingworth can conduct laboratorial exams, the narrator makes

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1010 Words | 5 Pages

When Chillingworth figures out why Hester is standing as a statue of ignominy, he decides to choose revenge against Hester and the person she committed sin with because public shame isn’t enough for him. “As he spoke, he laid his long forefinger on the scarlet letter which seemed to scorch into Hester’s breast, as if it had been red-hot. He noticed her involuntary gesture and smiled. He said, live therefore, and bear about thy doom with thee, in the eyes of men and women - in the eyes of him thou didst call thy husband - in the eyes of yonder child!”(61). When Chillingworth was still inquiring about Hester’s lover, he wanted to know what was going on with Dimmesdale.

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506 Words | 3 Pages

Another statement that Hawthorne makes in this section is that Chillingworth will not find anything except for mortality and corruption, but these were the things that he sought (125). This is giving the reader more insight on Chillingworth and his obsession. Chillingworth’s plan to infiltrate Dimmesdale’s home as his personal caretaker was to search for the truth. The once wise man had transformed once his obsession took control of him. Chillingworth’s

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