... . During the seventeenth century, in Puritan New England, a sin was looked upon as merely a sin with no context to the causes or effects of someone's actions. The actions of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne were done for the soulful purpose of love; however Puritan's society looked down upon Hester Prynne for the actions of her sins. Throughout the novel there are ... for adultery. Although Hester Prynne could not deny the guiltiness of her sin, for she was with child, her partner, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, could not face the consequences of confessing to such a sin amongst ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are many characters that transform; one of them is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale committed a great sin of the puritan society, he slept with another mans wife and Hester Prynne became pregnant. Hester was punished for her sin but Arthur Dimmesdale had not admitted to it, so he lives with this guilt and it is much worst for him ... , perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself--the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips!" (Page 65) This is the first scaffold scene Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is n...

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... , 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 ...

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... Letter suffered immensely for her sin as an adulteress, and her child from this sin, Pearl, suffered as well. But none suffered as did the secret father of Pearl, Arthur Dimmesdale, the town reverend who kept his secret bottled inside for seven years. The torment he endured from Roger Chillingworth, Hester's anonymous husband, caused the destruction of his character and inevitable death. The ... as to the identity of the father of her child. He states that he would prefer to have the minister of her parish Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, inquire as to the identity of the father, but Arthur ...

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Arthur Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is considered a very honorable person by almost everyone in the Puritan town. Practically no one would believe that he would have the ability to do any evil, much less the sin of adultery. On the contrary, Dimmesdale feels that he is a terrible person for ... to come about with more intensifying sermons. Adversely to the common opinion of the townspeople, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is not very honorable and does not deserve any praise whatsoever. In fact, he is a coward. Dimmesdale is not courageous enough to tell the town t...

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... upon themselfs as punishment. The harsh rules are apt to bring on sins in the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The sin of adultery affects Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, as well as the Physician Roger Chillingsworth. After Hester was convicted of adultery, she is forced to wear the scarlet letter "A" upon her breast for everyone to see. ... a stronger-willed person. After many years, she earned the respect of many Puritans through her craftsmen work and sincerity of her silence; unlike her partner, and Pearls father, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Addit...

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... people and objects and makes them symbolic of events and thoughts. Throughout the course of the book, Hawthorne uses Hester, Pearl, and Arthur Dimmesdale to signify and contrast both the Puritanical and Romantic philosophies. Hester Prynne, as seen by Puritanism is an extreme sinner; she has gone ... ) Pearl had a knack of fitting in with natural things. Puritanism puts all of its stock in the religious leader of the community; Arthur Dimmesdale was the Religious leader of the community where the story takes place. The reader soon discovers hates himself and must physically inflict pain ...

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... -punishment. The sin begins to gnaw away at his sanity. As forms of penance he engages in late night vigils, starvation, and very severe self-mutilations. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale has many opportunities to acknowledge his wrongdoing. He could have confessed during the first scaffold scene as Hester stood in front of the townspeople ... not been able to openly admit his horrible sin, it tortures him from the inside preventing him from repenting his sin. The respect given to Arthur Dimmesdale for being of high social standard in his society was an honor that ended u...

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... . Hester stubbornly refuses to let the people know who her child's father is. Unable to get a hint out of her, the magistrates call on the Reverend Dimmesdale, the most popular minister of the town, to decide Hester's fate. Reverend Dimmesdale pleads to Hester to reveal the father's identity, but still, she refuses. She is led back to the prison with her infant in a stony ... story; she is Hester's salvation, pride, and joy, and also acts as an eternal reminder of Hester's sin. Pearl and Hester are both avoided carefully by the community. Meanwhile, venerable Reverend Dimmesdale's body s...

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• Grade Level: High School

... get worse as the story goes on. These three sinners, in the eyes of the puritan community are the beautiful Hester Prynne, the esteemed Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and the cold-hearted doctor, Roger Chillingworth. Like Hawthorne, I believe that evil is the nature of man but that there are different magnitudes ... him after he arrived in North America. She still goes against the strict Puritan rules, and breaks Commandment 7, which was often punished by death. Arthur Dimmesdale is a strong pillar of the community and a very devoted Puritan. What could he do that is worse than young Hester...

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... or were deemed unfit for society. Two works of literature that display both aspects of this society very accurately are The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. The Scarlet Letter displays a society that treats two people very differently who commit the sin of adultery together. The woman, Hester Prynne, admits her sin, is forced to always ... wear a scarlet letter A on her bosom, and is ostracized from society. The man, Reverend Dimmesdale, hides his sin from the world, is almost worshipped by the townspeople, but is filled with the shame of his a...

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The main characters each had to face their wrongdoing in the light or dark. Roger Chillingworth, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Pearl Prynne come full circle with the birth and death of the figures. The actions of the sinners put a shadow ... letter A" (48) Her life of seclusion shows her determination to seek repentance for her sin. Not a vengeful person, she never tries to make the reverend guilty for not stepping up to as the father of her child. Neither does she harbor malice towards Chillingworth, whom she considers responsible for her vilification. Her ... the devil himself whose...

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale has a difficult time finding a way to relieve his sin. The Scarlet Letter's scaffold holds more importance than just somewhere to condemn prisoners, and, for Dimmesdale, it is a place to find peace. It is the one place where Dimmesdale felt liberated to say anything he wished. In Puritan culture, the scaffold is used to humiliate and discipline prisoners ... to God, and now his sin has tainted it. He feels that he is a fraud and is not fit to lead the people of the town to salvation. What horrifies Arthur is not his feeling of gui...

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... written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, deals with crime, punishment, and guilt in Puritan society. The main characters include Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Dimmesdale. All of the characters undergo a certain degree of crime, guilt, and punishment. Each of the characters either share the same amount of ... the other character's guilt would have probably not taken place. Especially the guilt she brings forth upon Dimmesdale. Townspeople also look down upon Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, another main character in the story. Dimmesdale also commits the sin of adultery. Unlike Heste...

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... believes that he has been lost at sea. As she stands on the scaffold, Hester notices two people in the crowd. The first is Arthur Dimmesdale, the leader of the local Puritan church and Hester's minister. The second man is Roger Chillingworth, her misshapen husband. When he realizes that ... be punished along with Hester. He vows to find the unnamed father of the baby and have his revenge. Even after consistent questioning by Reverend Wilson (the Church) and the Governor (the State), Hester refuses to disclose the name of the man who has committed adultery with her. ... constant remind...

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... Prynne as the main character of The Scarlet Letter. I believe Hester is the main character because without her, there would not be a novel. Reverend Dimmesdale would not have any sin to hide that would almost cause him death by not admitting to the sin. Pearl would have not been conceived. ... Lastly, Roger Chillingsworth would not have caused himself an early death by making it his sole purpose in life to seek revenge on Reverend Dimmesdale for inpregnating Hester. Hester travels through the story becoming only a shadow of her former self because of the sin she has to ... Massachusetts...

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... on the scaffold to emphasize suffering and torment in Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the book, the scaffold has been the symbol of puritan society's harsh punishment for sinners. The three scaffold scenes in The Scarlet Letter convey the theme of sin not being tolerated whatsoever in Puritan Society. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is tormented throughout the story and in all three scenes with the ... scaffold. In the second scaffold scene, Dimmesdale is "overwhelmed with shame, and stand[s] where Hester Prynne had stood" (pg. 139). He "shriek[s] aloud" (pg. 136) as he ... ...

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Arthur Dimmesdale: a modern man caught within the realm of the puritans. Dimmesdale's humanity is on trial throughout this novel, and on his journey to reconciliation we see how the world can break a man. Dimmesdale is hiding in fear as he travels his path to reconciliation. Throughout the novel Dimmesdale becomes increasingly ... in which he, Hester and Pearl are together upon the scaffold as a family. The reverend says "Come up hither once again, and we will stand all three together!" (pg140). After Dimmesdale gives his powerful speech, the author says "By yielding up his breath in the arm...

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... , the woman who commits a sin that forces her into ignominious solitude, uses her crime as leverage for her own personal development. Arthur Dimmesdale, believed to be a pious reverend, is provided as an example of conformity. He rejects his sin and is constrained to what the puritanical society believes to be as ... orthodox. And Pearl, who is the offspring of Hester and Dimmesdale, is unlike either of the two. She does not face the dilemmas ... the status quo and become her own ideal individual.Throughout the novel, Arthur Dimmesdale is known as a venerable reverend. He is "considered...

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... himself as a doctor and if putting all his time and effort towards hurting Dimmesdale. He is acting as a leech, sucking away at Dimmesdale's life, trying to pry into all of his deep, dark secrets. He senses something is not right and wants to know exactly what is bothering Reverend Dimmesdale. Roger despises him and his life-long goal is to seek revenge upon poor ... Dimmesdale (71). Dimmesdale's health is quickly going down the drain and he is having heart trouble, not to mention various other health complications. All of ... both exchange some words, but Chillingworth simply leaves H...

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... . The people are taking him for someone he is not and only Hester really knows the truth behind his shadow. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale have gone against Puritan law and committed the sin of adultery. But unlike Hester, Arthur hid his secret and was not honest with the people of his society or himself. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel ... , truth is the safest lie. By expressing truth Hester is set free, leaving Dimmesdale and Chillingworth to deteriorate from their falseness. Having committed a moral sin with Hester, Dimmesdale holds the truth inside. Being the rever...

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... relief and redemption. The second passage, like the first, revolves around an act of adultery committed by a man well respected in his community. In this excerpt from The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale, standing on a scaffold, reveals before the assembled town people that it was he who impregnated Hester Prynne. When Roger Chillingworth, the main antagonist of the novel, tries to stop ... Dimmesdale from acknowledging Hester and Pearl in the crowd, Dimmesdale says to him, "Methinks thou art too late! Thy power is not what it was! With God's help, I shall escape thee now!" In these wo...

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... works of literature that display both aspects of this society very accurately are The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. The Scarlet Letter displays a society that treats two people very differently who commit the sin of adultery together. The woman, Hester ... Prynne, admits her sin, is forced to always wear a scarlet letter "A" on her bosom, and is ostracized from society. The man, Reverend Dimmesdale, who hides his sin from the world, is almost worshipped by the townspeople, but is filled with the dishonor of his action. Hawthorne illustrates ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... in placing it upon Hester's breast, the magistrates had blasphemously usurped the function of God, as Chillingworth later usurps it in his plot against Dimmesdale. Yet it serves her well in freeing her from all danger of trying to live such a lie as consumes her lover. She presents what ... decides to take Pearl away from Hester because Pearl states that she was plucked from a bush of wild roses instead of being created by God. Reverend Dimmesdale later persuades Bellingham that it was God's will to keep Pearl with her mother. Bellingham's ultimate decision to carry out God's will was th...

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• Grade Level: High School

... prison. This is an appropriate symbol for the punishment that the protagonists will suffer. The Scarlet Letter deals with the adultery sin of Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the revenge of Roger Chillingsworth, and the towns people's attitude toward Hester and her daughter Pearl. Puritans society believed that sinners should be punished for ... her chest. She could not escape all of the towns people gossiping directed towards her. Although her pain is not as bad as the pain Dimmesdale goes through. By Dimmedale holding his sin in, he stood their and watched Hester stand wit...

• Word Count: 811
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• Grade Level: High School