Arthur Dimmesdale Dimmesdale is a scared man because he is Hester's lover but does not want to admit it. He watches Hester suffer and face her sin while he hides his inside ... If he were to confess that he committed adultery, everything he did would be gone. Still, if he doesn't confess, the guilt will destroy him from the inside. Dimmesdale persuades the clergymen to allow Hester to keep Pearl on terms that Pearl is a torture for her to keep because Pearl is a child born from sin. She defends ... I conceive, moreover, that the hearst holding such miserable secrets as you speak of will yield...

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• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 that he was the one who committed adultery with ... . " Wilt thou stand here with mother and me, to-morrow noontide?" He replies " Nay; not so, my little Pearl." Arthur Dimmesdale is also a masochist. He has become a masochist because of his lack of owning up to his sin. Following the example of Hester's scarlet letter ... ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... characters are affected by their own agony. Nathaniel Hawthorne suggests that suffering is necessary to be remorseful. Suffering ruins Roger Chillingworth, while it aids Hester Prynne in becoming rueful. When Arthur Dimmesdale finally confesses, his suffering assists him to be contrite as well. If Hester does not suffer, she will not become contrite or learn from her mistakes. Although her suffering ... he is, he's sucked the life out of poor Pearl's father. He makes it his sole purpose in life to cause Dimmesdale to suffer. Chillingworth does not want Arthur to confess his sins because ...

• Word Count: 695
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• Grade Level: High School

... , and make his covenant with God. Yet, throughout the story his confession remains an impediment, constraining him from then onward to a life of atonement. Dimmesdale's story is one of a lonely man who has given into temptation and lascivious desire. Hester's marriage and his unwillingness to tarnish his reputation as the ... . 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 Hes...

• Word Count: 898
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... all falsehood! - all emptiness!- all death" Dimmesdale is living a lie, there is no truth in his life. 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 Hawthorne the theme of truth has great importance. Even if it affects social status or it leads to revenge, truth is the safes...

• Word Count: 827
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• Grade Level: High School

... 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. This ... -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. Additionally, t...

• Word Count: 462
• Approx Pages: 2
• 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
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• Grade Level: High School

... shame associated with their actions. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, "The Scarlet Letter," he shows the lasting effect that adultery has on Chillingworth Dimmesdale, and Hester. Roger Chillingworth's first reaction to the crime of adultery committed by Hester is one of shock, but he quickly suppresses it ... . This suppression makes Chillingworth become obsessed with vengeance. He destroyed Rev. Dimmesdale's life by torturing him with his analogies and indirect stories. He also destroyed his own life because these vengeful actions soon turned him ... . As a physician, he was well respec...

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• Grade Level: High School

... sentence. She accepted her sin and accepted herself. She learned to love who she was. In total contrast to Hester, Pearl's secret father, Arthur Dimmesdale, the town minister, does not confess his sin until after it completely destroys him. He hides his adultery and fails to claim Pearl as ... is guilt and self-condemnation, increased by the torture by Roger Chillingsworth; Hester's undisclosed husband and the town's physician. "Happy are you, Hester," says Dimmesdale, "that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!" (188). As his shame and inner guilt increase...

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• Grade Level: High School

... 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 ... on 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 with hi...

• Word Count: 811
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• Grade Level: High School

... related to Judge Hawthorne from The Crucible. In this essay, I will compare and contrast The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible in themes relating to both. In Arthur Miller's book, adultery is not seen by most as a major point, but it is the focus around which the death of the main characters, John ... . Thus it becomes related to Nathaniel Hawthorne's book whose entire plot revolves around the sin of adultery. In the core of the market place, Dimmesdale does the same thing and admits to the sin that has plagued him for seven years. This too would have made him hang; however he ... the to...

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• Grade Level: High School

... novel had an outstanding comparison between two characters, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester was forced to live a different life than she wanted and Arthur had to live with his guilt. Hester and Arthur's lives had changed dramatically due to the sin that they both committed. After Hester was found guilty of committing adultery, Arthur gets off scot-free. Except in his mind, he should ... and be paid, and except, very poorly or with food. Hester also had to take of Pearl without the help of a husband or anyone else for that matter. Hester and Arthur's lives both changed in the...

• Word Count: 308
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... effects of sin in different ways. There are many themes to this story, the main one being you can't just ignore your sins and hold them inside of you. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale committed adultery, but when his mistress, Hester Prynne, became pregnant he remained quiet. Hester was punished for this sin in more than one way. She had to wear a scarlet letter ... which was nothing compared to the shunning by all of the town and constant sermons directed towards her. Although this is not that bad compared to the pain and torture Dimmesdale goes through. He holds this huge secret inside of h...

• Word Count: 358
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... , Hester Prynne, commits the cardinal sin of adultery and is forced to bear the shame of the scarlet letter. Her sin affects all those around her, but most notably, Reverend Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, and, of course, Prynne herself. Throughout the novel, Hester is ostracized for her sin. One of the more notable examples is Hester's residence in a cottage on the outskirts ... among the "righteous" members of the settlement. In the end, Hester remains a hermit for most of her natural life, unable to escape the self-torment of her sin. The Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is physically affe...

• Word Count: 361
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School