“The excitement of Mr. Dimmesdale's feelings as he returned from his interview with Hester, lent him unaccustomed physical energy, and hurried him townward 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. But he leaped across the plashy places, thrust himself through the clinging underbrush, climbed the ascent,

Reading about the joy of the Reverend in this passage hurts, in my opinion, because the reader knows what Arthur does not, that this will not work out. Whatever he does, whether he goes on the scaffold and professes his sin, or moves to England with Hester and Pearl, this relationship can not work because in so many ways, Dimmesdale rejects the Scarlet Letter, in both human and supernatural forms, it now rejects him, evidenced by the reactions of Pearl in the last chapter, when she runs to the brook to was her head after she Dimmesdale kisses her. The relationship will not work, and seeing the Reverend with this hope pains me.

Just “two days before,” Dimmesdale “feebly, and with … frequent pauses for breath toiled over the same ground,” that the reader now sees him traveling over in this passage. However easily Dimmesdale accomplishes this feat, Hawthorne makes mention of the fact that path itself poses no easier a route, but rather a “wilder, more uncouth [path] with… rude natural obstacles… less trodden by the foot of man.” The path, from my reading, symbolizes the road that the Reverend must now take to free himself from the guilt which has accompanied him for seven long years. He can no longer hide behind his secret guilt, but must make public what he did seven years ago. I believe that he was always going to do this, and Hester’s motivation only accelerated the process. Whatever way he was going to go about this, no one knows, but this new plan, which involves leaving the country and starting anew, involves more obstacles. Though the road consists of more obstacles, Hester prepares Dimmesdale for it during their conversation, which allows him to cover the path with the ease that he does in this passage. During my reading, I spent much of my focus on this idea of the path and its difficulty.

Laced between the lin

Some topics in this essay:
Seeing Dimmesdale, Nature Civilization, Hester Reverend, Pearl Hester’s, Scarlet Letter, Hester Dimmesdale, Reverend Dimmesdale, Arthur Whatever, Hester Pearl, , scarlet letter, former self, plot themes, frequent pauses breath, nature civilization, dealing guilt, dimmesdale conversation, themes novel, trodden foot, days before”, pauses breath toiled, breath toiled,