The Hidden Sin In The Scarlet Letter

Dimmesdale's guilt overtakes him. With the stress from the congregation viewing him as someone who is "holier-than-thou", and Mr. Chillingworth bating him, he becomes conflicted with his feelings of sinfulness and feels the need to keep this a secret from the congregation. The more his guilt overtakes him, the better his sermons got. Because he is so overwhelmed with remorse and shame his sermons have become famous. he connects more with the audience because he believes that he is more sinful than they are.

Dimmesdale should have come clean right at the start but he instead he covered it up and this opens a door for people to use it against you if they find out. This happens in to Dimmesdale when Chillingworth who at the time was Hester’s ex-husband and Dimmesdale’s doctor, he finds out that his suspicions were right about Dimmesdale being the person that was involved in the affair with Hester when he finds the letter A written on his chest. This opens a door for

One spontaneous but significant mistake made by Arther Dimmesdale caused him to live the rest of his life crawling with guilt. Arthur Dimmesdale, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, had an affair with a married woman, and that crime ruined the lives of almost everyone in the novel. The Scarlet Letter remains a classic to this day because it emphasizes harsh penance which highlights the difference between the treatment of sinners today and those during the 17th century. The way Puritans view sin and guilt cause Dimmesdale’s life to come to an unfortunate end.

The reader is especially made aware of Dimmesdale's mental state in the eleventh chapter, “His 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” [150]. This suggests that he is racked with immense guilt and shame at the falsehood he is living and suggests that he is physically abusing himself as a result of this guilt. This directly contradicts Chillingworth's mental state of fury and vengeance that he falls deeper into as the story progresses. These two characters also hold striking incongruities as to what drives them onward as the account

With Dimmesdale being able to live with his sin his condition becomes exceptionally better, “The excitement of Mr. Dimmesdale feelings as he returned from his interview with Hester, lent him unaccustomed physical energy and hurried him town ward at a rapid pace. The pathway among the woods seemed wilder more uncouth with its rude natural obstacles and less trodden by the foot of man than he remembered it on his outward journey,” (Hawthorne 148). When he returned to the town and gave his last sermon before he left for England, he saw Chillingsworth within the crowd. Dimmesdale then knew what he had to do in front of all the towns’ people, “God’s eye beheld it! The angels were forever pointing at it!

The minister should have confessed his sin since he would bear less shame. Unfortunately, most of the minister’s shame came from the fact that he was hiding his sin. The people would graciously forgive the minister and the shame and guilt, which he had borne for so long, would slowly start to melt away. The people loved the minister; they would not hold a grudge against him. The sooner the minister confessed, the sooner he would start to heal.

Everyone on the Earth has some point done something in his or her life that was considered wrong. Some have chosen to face the consequences of their wrongdoing while others just live knowing that they did something wrong, facing the guilt and shame in silence. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Dimmesdale chose to not face his sin of adultery for more than seven years, instead battling with the guilt. Arthur Dimmesdale is conflicted between the truth that will free his conscious setting him free of guilt and his position as the seemingly perfect town reverend. Dimmesdale decides not to tell the townspeople of his wrong doing until the end of the novel after battling with the decision between these two things.

Dimmesdale is full of guilt, because he is a leader of the community and was true to his religion, yet he still committed the substantial sin. Not only did he commit the sin, but he continues to keep it hidden from his community. Dimmesdale is supposed to be true to the work that he does, and guilt is what he should feel for hiding who he truly is. “Whom would they discern there, with the red eastern light upon his brow? Whom,

Sinner are forced to live with their sins for the rest of their lives, that is a moral consequence they must live with. Sin may not be affecting a person on the outside, but they will continue to feel its effect on the inside. Nathaniel Hawthorn 's The Scarlet Letter gives insight on how sin can affect a person without giving any outward appearance. This is shown when Reverend Dimmesdale becomes frail and dies because of the sin he had committed. Dimmesdale exclaims “God knows; and He is merciful!

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.

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

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).

In the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” and the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the stories of two men who keep their sins secret and are hurt deeply. In The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Dimmesdale does not reveal his sin to the community and experiences far more pain than Hester, whose sin is revealed. Years after the original sin, Hester has healed and is accepted by the community, while Dimmesdale still feels guilty, as can be seen when he mounts the scaffold. Dimmesdale’s experience is similar to that of Reverend Hooper, who covers his face after a secret sin and is eschewed by the community. When we refuse to admit our faults, we will feel guilty

This again shows that he is not afraid to be with Hester through this ordeal. Dimmesdale is also shown in the book to be a generally a nice person. An example of this is is throughout the book, he tries to get more involved in Pearl’s Life as he sees that they are precious moments with his daughter. Another example is when Dimmesdale says to everyone publically he has committed the sin of adultery. Instead of reporting him to the authorities and having him punished, they congratulate him for being holy as he’s always been.

The Scarlet Letter Essay Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale were two of the main sinners in The Scarlet Letter. Both characters kept their sins secrete throughout the story. These sins included adultery, revenge, and even murder. Out of the two sinners, Chillingworth was the worst, because he never felt guilt for the terrible things he was doing. Dimmesdale spent his entire life in guilt and remorse for the sins he had committed (“Who”).