In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, what appears to be Hester Prynne’s calamity becomes the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale’s agony and depression, despite the missive “A” boldly present on her thorax. Reverend Dimmesdale’s matter with Hester Prynne continuously troubles his scruples; seeing that no other individual feels as guilty, the curate is the most tragic character in the novel. In the clip when this novel takes topographic point, non merely curates, but the ordinary people of the town took faith really seriously. With great displeasure, Hester Prynne takes her penalty of being shunned from the people of her society, and by covering it up and releasing her wickedness, Pearl’s important part to Hester’s life Acts of the Apostles as a remedy to her misbehaviors, while no 1 to turn to, Dimmesdale’s guilty scruples is buried within, finally distrusting him.
Hester Prynne’s wickedness of criminal conversation had a large impact on herself every bit good as the full community. All the people looked at her as worthless and dishonest. Her error had shunned her from the society. She quoted: “ I happened to put it on my chest. It seemed to me, so that I experienced a esthesis non wholly physically, yet about so, as of firing heat; and as if the missive were non of ruddy fabric, but juicy iron. ” (31) At the clip, no one knew the whereabouts of her spouse. She had felt highly alone and disappointed; the idea of her being shunned from the community was beyond her belief. Her last hope was Pearl. By no agency did she hold to endure every bit good.
To many people, the wood is a good and the happy topographic point full of nature and regard, but in New England at this clip of witchcraft, it spelled evil and had horror written all over it. It is one twenty-four hours that Hester Prynne and Pearl meet Dimmesdale in the wood. After a conversation about Hester, it is now clipped for Arthur to portion what is on his disquieted, confused head. With a self-esteem already low he smartly puts Forth: “ Of repentance, I hold had adequate! Of repentance there has been none! Else, I should long ago I have thrown these garments of mock sanctity, and have shown myself to mankind as they will see me at the judgement-seat. Happy are you, Hester, that wear the vermilion missive openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret! ” (176)
Dimmesdale clearly sees that Hester is no longer worried or feels guilt inside himself. For him, it seems farcical that Hester feels the manner she does. With Pearl at her side, Hester has person to turn to for hope, and that’s precisely what she has done. Reverend Dimmesdale has had a alone journey of guilt. With no 1 to turn to, his wickedness “burns in secret.”
It is non until the center of the novel that we find out the true hurting suffered by Arthur Dimmesdale. As a Minister of the town, he plays a really important function, even a baronial function as a retainer to god. With his churning scruples inside the curate decides to take a walk in the center of the dark when no 1 is about and possibly free himself of guilt. “ Why so had he come hither (seeing that it was the center of the dark)? Was it but the jeer of repentance? A jeer, so, but in which his psyche trifled itself! A jeer at which angles blushed and wept, while friends rejoiced, with scoffing laughter! He had been driven hither by the urge of compunction which dogged him every place ” (142).
Up until this point in the novel, Dimmesdale had shown about no fondness for his matter with Hester Prynne, but inside his wickedness burned with torment. The ultimate significance of such an eccentric journey was the interchanging of Hester and Arthur’s guilt. It is from here on in the novel that Dimmesdale’s blameworthy scruples come alive. Hester, so urgently seeking to salvage what small good scruples Dimmesdale might hold left, cannon assists, but shout and cry in concern for his well being.
At this point, if it were for non her willingness to salvage Arthur, he would most probably have finally committed to suicide, transgressing one time once more. With a much lower act of aggression, Dimmesdale unhappily can non assist himself defy his blamable act as a curate of God. He tragically quotes: “ It was far worse than decease! But how to avoid it? Shall I lay down once more on these withered foliages, where I cast myself when 1000 didst state me what he was? Must I sink down in that place, and dice at one time? ” (180), a really true, unfastened statement by Dimmesdale, possibly his best in the novel.
Seven old ages ago, it was Hester, who had been in the places of Dimmesdale. She had one time longed to be free of guilt and a part of her society. Now, in a province of no hope or belief, Arthur can visualize the close hereafter of his life. “ Must I sink down in that place and decease at one time ”. He refers to “ down there ” as Hell. His feelings here are brought to him, non under his in scruples, but under the ministerial beliefs of God. As consequence of his faith he has an enormous fright of Hell.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter proved to be nil more than a mark of Adultery upon the bosom of Hester Prynne. Hester, every bit good as Pearl, is able to get the better of the shame and disgrace it brings to their self-esteem. As a curate to God and no 1 to bend to, the tragic wickedness of adultery causes great enduring in the life of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. More so than any other character in the novel.
