... reveal that he is her long lost husband, but swear that he will find and seek revenge on the father of this baby. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and his friend John Wilson are introduced at the scaffold begging Hester to reveal the father of the baby so that he may suffer just ... there. One of the conflicts in The Scarlet Letter is one man's battle against himself. In this novel, an anguished Arthur Dimmesdale struggles to quiet his conscience and withhold the secret of his sin from being known. As his conscience continues to consume all that is his ... as well as of the traits of the human...

• Word Count: 2338
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... scenes, Hester Prynne stands alone under direct scrutiny from the public. By the second of such scenes, the story is in the middle of its development, and the guilt of Arthur Dimmesdale has fully developed. Though he is unable to confess to the townspeople, he tries to soothe some of his inner pain by revealing his secret to the night. It is ... not until the books conclusion, however, that Dimmesdale finds peace through the full confession of his sins to the crowd. Examining Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth in the context of the scaffold scenes, shows that hone...

• Word Count: 1627
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the known will of God. Sin in The Scarlet Letter is not only committed by Chillingworth but by Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and also the Puritan society as a whole. Both Dimmesdale and Hester commit the sin of adultery while Chillingworth commits the mortal sin of having anger, hatred, and envy towards ... that Hawthorn intends for us to see so that we regard the Puritan society itself as a character who sinned. What happens to Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth results from the ethics, morals, sterness and the rigidity of the individual Puritans the characters interact with. Th...

• Word Count: 2203
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... , the three scaffold scenes developed by Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter depict the moral, emotional and psychological effects of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Also, the Scarlet letter "A" that Hester is obligated to wear affects her persona and shadow self along with ... life of her own. Other characters are also affected in the first scaffold scene. The first scaffold scene also affects Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. Dimmesdale's emotions lie with tremendous remorse for the sin he has committed. He feels he should be on the scaffold a...

• Word Count: 1995
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... is sentenced to wear a scarlet letter as a symbol of her adultery. Hester's life is torn between two men, her husband, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister and father of her child. Chillingworth had sent Hester ahead of him to New England and did not follow or correspond with her for ... her to reveal his name, but she takes it as him being the innocent minister he is supposed to be. This first scaffold scene launches Dimmesdale's personal battle against himself to reveal his sin and begins Chillingworth's personal war against the man who has fathered Hester's child....

• Word Count: 1498
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... to reveal their secrets, thus showing some similarities (as well as differences) between the good and evil portrayed in the story. Arthur Dimmesdale, by and large, was represented goodness and purity in the story. The entire town revered him and he was a highly ... transforming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a devil's office (p. 166). Somehow, Chillingworth was aware that Dimmesdale was the man who had committed adultery with his former wife, Hester Prynne.   And, rather than being "a good Puritan," Chillingworth decided to take the ......

• Word Count: 1430
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... adulteress] destroyeth his own soul"(6.32 Bible). This quote plays an important role in this book because the main characters, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, are adulteress. Using this, Hawthorne can describe the way Puritans deal with sin. Hawthorne's universal belief that guilt endures until penance is ... that guilt endures until penance is made. Hawthorne portrays the idea that guilt endures until penance is made with the use of Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale has a merciless attitude on himself and humiliates himself until the tip of death because he cannot overcome the guilt that cam...

• Word Count: 1253
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

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 ... eventually wins the sympathy of others but still fails to gain her complete acceptance by the Puritan society that surrounds her. Committing adultery with Hester was Dimmesdale sin, it more and internal rather than external. His own weakness and lack of courage, he fails to confess and suffers constantly. He continually ... his religious image in...

• Word Count: 1594
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

According to Anne Marie MacNamara, Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter goes through several stages of spiritual growth; preparation, communication, transformation and finally revelation. To further understand why Dimmesdale is so hard on himself we must first Learn a little back ground on Puritanism. Puritanism was a move influenced ... church should decide its leader's democratically and finally that it would be of great importance to read scripture (Hudson 62-64). This relates to Dimmesdale because the puritans believed very strongly in a strict catholic church. They were very mean and h...

• Word Count: 1813
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... who sent her ahead to America to live but never followed her. While waiting for him, she had an affair with a Purtan minister named Dimmesdale, after which she gave birth to Pearl. Hester is passionate but also strong "she endures years of shame and scorn. She equals both ... self-absorbed and both physically and psychologically monstrous. His single-minded pursuit of retribution reveals him to be the most malevolent character in the novel. C. Arthur Dimmesdale is a young man who achieved fame in England as a theologian and then emigrated to America. In a moment of weakness, he and Heste...

• Word Count: 1337
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... convenience or as a means of financial gain or social status. Could the lust for social status and financial security at this time have contributed to Hester's later lust for Reverend Dimmesdale? Perhaps Hester gained a sense of boldness at her first taste of freedom and independence which caused her to tread down a path that perhaps in another place or another time she ... who Hester believed herself to be as a person. Her own daughter Pearl does not acknowledge Hester when she takes the symbol off her dress as she sits and converses with Arthur Dimmesdale in the forest. Pearl demands ...

• Word Count: 1295
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School