Arthur Dimmesdale’s Guilt and Hypocrisy Essay

In Nathaniel Hawthornes bewitching tale, The Scarlet garner, a revered puritan minister suffers from recreant misdeed and fraud after he commits adultery in this novel staged in the seventeenth century. Arthur Dimmesdale, who hides himself in the shame of his loer, Hester Prynne, protects his reputation among the prude people. The hold up, a public symbol of disgrace, contrasts with the government ministers static blunder of adultery. When Hester became a symbol of sin among the people and wore the red letter as punishment, Dimmesdale bears a evildoers masked mark in his heart. As a resultant role of his conceal sin, Dimmesdale suffers from unrighteousness and deception. Over the course of the terce hold scenes, Dimmesdale changes from faint guilt and imposition, to fearful guilt and hypocrisy, and finally to repentant accept.In the offset scaffold scene, Dimmesdale is aware of his guilt and hypocrisy when he questions his lover, Hester Prynne, but when is bes ides cowardly to confess his sin. Questioning the strumpet from a balcony alongside the spiritual and policy-making leaders of the Puritan colony, the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, correlates Dimmesdales inflated position among the Puritan colony and shows Dimmesdales reputation at stake. Placing pressure on the young woman, Dimmesdale pleads, Be non silent from any mistaken pity and softheartedness for him for believe me, Hester, though he were to measuring rod down from a high built in bed and stand there beside thee, on thy rack of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life.1 Wordlessly relieved by her silence, Dimmesdale cowardly withheld his sin from the public.The significance of Dimmesdales cowardliness parallels with the shame and fear of the scaffold and the caper it brings. Seven years later, in the sanction scaffold scene, Dimmesdale is desperate to confess because his guilt and hypocrisy moderate only increased, but he manages only a cowardly private rehearsal of his confession. In the dummy up of the night, Dimmesdale desperately climbed the scaffold and shrieked loudly, It is do2 It was not so. Shrieking aloud like those suffering souls who turn out from the face of God, Dimmesdale felt little relaxation from the iron chains of guilt and hypocrisy. appetite to free his guilty soul, Dimmesdale stood on the scaffold imagining Hesters disgrace. Illustrating his inner conflicts, Dimmesdale had expressed himself by screaming aloud. Immediate horror encompassed him because he is afraid of being discovered by the town. Alone in the abyss of darkness, upon the stem of shame, Dimmesdale found little relief in his private confession in the sustain scaffold scene.Finally, a few long time later, Dimmesdale confesses his sin publicly in the troika scaffold scene, showing his repentance and thereby finding relief from guilt and hypocrisy. Allowing his sin to fester in his heart for over seven years, Dimmesdale, no w a dying man from sin, decided to ascend the scaffold. Dimmesdale, perceptiveness that he, a dying man, sought forbearance and forgiveness, and climbed the pedestal in guilty remorse. Ye that leave loved meye, that have deemed me holy see me here, the one sinner of the world At farthermost I stand upon the defect where seven years since, I should have stood3 Beckoning Hester and their child, Pearl, to his side, Dimmesdales voice strengthened. As he confesses, the people recognized Dimmesdale drill hole the same stigma that marked Hester. Dimmesdale asks for forgiveness, thereof completing his necessary duty to procure the benefit of redeeming grace and foretaste and releasing himself from the devils clutches.A dramatic character, Dimmesdale changes through the course of lead scaffold scenes as a result of his recondite sins. Arthur Dimmesdale acknowledges his sin in the last scaffold scene as he realizes his cowardice when Hester is punished and acknowledges his sufferin gs caused by his hidden sins seven years later. Driven by the realization that his offences dictate his life, Dimmesdales sins clogged him from a deeper spiritual life. At first without success, Arthur Dimmesdale tried to free himself, but doesnt do so until the third scaffold scene when he finally confesses. In conclusion, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, reminds the reader to be wary of cowardly guilt and hypocrisy as demonstrated in Arthur Dimmesdales character Be true Be true Be true introduce freely to the world, if not your worst, yet around trait whereby the worst whitethorn be inferred.4 Free of guilt and hypocrisy in his public confession, Dimmesdale died in hope of Gods mercy.1-4 Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Scarlet Letter (Dover Thrift Study Edition The make do Work + Comprehensive Study send secure 2009 by Dover Publications) p. 47, p. 102, p. 127, p. 174Copyright 2013. All Rights Reserved. This work belongs to Ashlyn R. Thomas and may not be repr oduced without consent. 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