In Nathaniel Hawthorne's book The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses many literary tools to accomplish the points he's trying to make. Among these is his use of symbolism. He uses allegorical images as well as rich and figurative language to convey his messages about sin and the nature of the human self. For example, he utilizes imagery to convey that Dimmesdale can represent Puritan Society rather than the round character that can be seen on the surface level. This is seen through the imagery and symbolism of hypocrisy, Dimmesdale as a Christ figure, and the scarlet letter.
Dimmesdale symbolically portrays Jesus Christ in certain ways. For instances, Dimmesdale's death marked the beginning of a new era, just as Christ's death marked a new beginning for all of those who believe in Him. Dimmesdale's death symbolically ends the marks the beginning of American History and the end of colonial history, just as Christ's death marked the beginning of the Christian church. Also, Dimmesdale mirrored Jesus Christ, in his teaching that to save your life you must lose it. Anyone that wants to follow Jesus must give up their life and let him lives for them. Similarly, Dimmesdale can not truly live until he confesses his sin, but when he finally confesses he dies. Finally, Dimmesdale parallels Christ through the suffering of his death. Hawthorne describes Dimmesdale's suffering, "This burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man, to keep the torture always at red-heat!" So it can be seen that Dimmesdale does not just die, but rather he suffers much pain in his death. In this way, Jesus did not just die but was brutally murdered and suffered indescribable pain. Through this imagery that parallels Dimmesdale to Jesus Christ, we can see that Dimmesdale represents a Christ figure for the Puritan society, and Hawthorne uses this to criticize Puritan society. So, through the symbols of hypocrisy, Christ, and The Scarlet Letter we can see that Hawthorne uses Dimmesdale as a symbolic character of Puritan society, rather than the personal character that is seen without looking into Hawthorne's use of imagery to convey characterization.
