“…But (Hester) is not the protagonist, the chief actor, and the tragedy of The Scarlet Letter is not her tragedy but Arthur’s. He is the persecuted one, the tempted one. He it was whom the sorrows of death encompassed…. His public confession is one of the noblest climaxes of tragic literature.”

The argument over the protagonist role in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne runs undeniably deep. At first glance it appears that the protagonist of the story is Hester Prynn, however Randall Stewart has presented an argument that suggesur Dimmesdale as the Protagonist of the story. Hester Prynn is the character that the story focuses on, more then any other character. She is the mother of her only daughter, Pearl, who was conceived in sin with the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Arthur Dimmesdale is the reverend of the small puritan society, and Hester’s partner in sin. This also makes him Pearls Father. It most certainly appears that Arthur Dimmesdale is not the protagonist, but Hester Prynn plays this role. These two leading-role characters may have some things in common, but only one can convey most of the action. Hester Prynn solely occupies the role of protagonist by far. She

The reverend of the town in that day was a very authoritative position. It was Hester’s decision to engage in sexual intercourse with this important man. Most realize that men do not have enough blood to operate both their reproductive organs and their brain at the same time, so saying that it was Dimmesdale’s decision is almost entirely a lie. He waited with open arms and Hester, the protagonist, initiated the building of the infrastructure of The Scarlet Letter.

The definition of a protagonist is “The principal character in a work of fiction.” The principal character cannot be Arthur Dimmesdale because he is a weak spineless coward who does nothing but wallow in self-pity and denial. Hester is strong and possesses many stong qualities. All qualities of a protagonist, who initiates the action in a story and allows for forward movement, As Hester Prynn does in The Scarlet Letter.

The position of protagonist is one of power, and it is easily noticible that Dimmesdale wields no power over anyone, let alone himself. On the contrary to Stewart's statement, it appears that Dimmesdale is actually a hypocritical coward. Worse, he is a self-confessed hypocritical coward. Dimmesdale has only one part in the whole story. His role is centered on his self-tortur

Some topics in this essay:
Hester Prynn, Arthur Dimmesdale, Arthur Dimmesdale’s, Hester Pearl, Scarlet Letter, Hester Hester, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chillingworth Hester’s, hester prynn, arthur dimmesdale, scarlet letter, Roger Chillingworth, Randall Stewart, protagonist story, story hester prynn, arthur dimmesdale’s, roger chillingworth, dimmesdale protagonist, pearl public, hester pearl, hypocritical coward, protagonist role scarlet, protagonist story hester, hester pearl public, role scarlet letter,