Hester And Dimmesdale example essay topic

The Scarlet Letter: Tales of Sin and Confession By: Zack Phillips " The happiness of the wicked passes away like a torrent!" This quote from Jean Baptiste Racin summarizes The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in one sentence. The novel's main focus is on three main characters and how the sins they commit affect their lives in the strict Puritan town of Boston around the year 1642. Hawthorne was very knowledgeable of his Puritan ancestry and shows it by incorporating some important thoughts and traditions into this story about sin and confession. Throughout the novel, the physical, social, mental and emotional changes that result from sin in the lives of the characters are never positive and the outcome of their spiritual battles are not always good; but the author makes it perfectly clear to us that concealing sin is not wise. Hawthorne begins the first chapter of the novel with Hester's punishment. She had committed adultery, a crime that the Puritans often punished by death.

She was sentenced to stand on the scaffold, a symbol of shame, for three hours in front of the whole town and to wear a scarlet letter "A" (meaning Adultery) for the rest of her life. She stayed loyal to her new partner and refused to expose his identity. Although she is not justified, Hester did not commit the greatest sin in the novel. Hers was a crime of passion and love, not premeditated or intended to hurt others.

The sin in her actions was that her desire was of more importance to her than the Puritan moral code. This is proven when Hester says to Dimmesdale, "What we did had a consecration of its own. We felt it so! We said so to each other!" Hester fully acknowledged her guilt and displayed it with pride to the world. The elaborately decorated scarlet letter and the style in which she clothed her daughter, Pearl, was proof of this. Hester is, indeed, a sinner and her crime was very serious.

The book is named after the punishment she received for committing this crime and it made life incredibly difficult for herself and her partner, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. In overcoming the hardships, she learned many important lessons that could be used to prevent future problems. "Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wilds ones, and they had made her strong... ". Her comfort to the broken-hearted, charity to the poor, and unquestionable presence in times of hardship were direct results of her quest for repentance.

Her salvation also lies in truth, this is evident when she says, "In all things else, I have striven to be true! Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast, and did hold fast through all extremity; save when thy good-thy life-thy fame-were put in question! Then I consented to a deception. But a lie is never good, even though death threaten on the other side!" (176) Although she is not very religious, Hester's virtues and learning abilities qualify her as the strongest character in the novel. The whole town admires Arthur Dimmesdale, the respected preacher.

He preaches against sin and urges his congregation to confess their evil deeds and wicked thoughts. "I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except tempt him -yea compel him, as it were-to add hypocrisy to sin?" Ironically, Hawthorne later reveals that Dimmesdale has been a hypocritical coward from the day of his affair with Hester. As far as the townspeople know, Hester is the lone sufferer for one sin committed by two people.

No one would ever guess that their minister, alone, is guilty of three major crimes: adultery, hypocrisy, and neglecting confession. His heart becomes so heavy with guilt, remorse, and sorrow that he punishes himself by fasting for days, whipping his own back. Some believe that this is what caused the scarlet "A" to mysteriously appear on his chest. The guilt that is a direct result of concealing his terrible sins is literally destroying him.

Hawthorne writes, "No man, for any considerable period can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true". (196) Dimmesdale is learning this lesson the hard way. His inner-conscience longs to confess, but he has too much worldly wealth at stake. He successfully keeps his secret from the town until he realizes it has already killed him. Hawthorne had introduced Chillingworth as the victim, not the villain. After all, Hester and Dimmesdale both violated him by engaging in the act of adultery.

This causes many readers to sympathize for Chillingworth until he plainly confesses that it was originally himself that sinned: "Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay". (66) Chillingworth knew that Hester didn't love him before they were married, but he was looking for what he wanted. He didn't mean to ruin Hester's life. His sin, like Hester's, was a crime of passion and desire.

This alone does not qualify him as the worst sinner in the novel. When Chillingworth learns of the affair, he conceals his rage and jealousy from the townspeople. He dwells on the shame that Dimmesdale has caused him. These two sins-concealment and obsession-work together to increase Chillingworth's anger and desire for revenge. He never fights the desire to hurt Dimmesdale.

Instead, he enjoys watching him suffer. Chillingworth has begun an evil transformation: his face is darker and his eyes seem to occasionally reflect an eerie red glare. Dimmesdale may have survived a little longer and lived to escape with Hester if it hadn't been for Roger Chillingworth's mind games. He would address him as "pious Master Dimmesdale" (122) and praise him as if he were flawless and holy. This made the minister concentrate on how unholy and shameful he really was, thus increasing the remorse and sadness plaguing his life by ten-fold. After seven years of this, Dimmesdale cannot take anymore.

His heart and mind are unable to support the weight of his guilt, leaving him sick, drained and eventually, dead. Dimmesdale has become the worst sinner in the novel. In his attempts to play God of Dimmesdale's life, Roger Chillingworth was transformed into a "Devil". (152) After the Election Sermon, the preacher realized that his choice to hide his sins from the public and protect his reputation had gotten out of hand. He knew that his death was drawing near and was certain to take place whether he got his terrible secret off his chest or not. The last of his strength was spent confessing and asking for forgiveness, and he breathed his last breath almost immediately after.

Chillingworth had devoted much of his life to exacting revenge from Arthur Dimmesdale. Now that he had successfully escaped the clutches of the evil physician by departing from his life on earth, Chillingworth had nothing left. The last seven years of stress and hidden shame had become a waste, and he now had to answer to those who witnessed his cries of defeat. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter to send a message.

A man named Fulton John Sheen said it best, "No person is ever made better by having someone else tell them how rotten he is; but many are made better by avowing the guilt themselves". When the characters in this novel concealed their sin, they were destroyed by it. Hester was openly repentant and lived a happy life, alone with Pearl. She admitted her sin and continued to incorporate the virtues to which she held so tight, into her life. Evidence of Hawthorne's long Puritan background reveals itself in The Scarlet Letter through the beliefs and messages about sin and confession. Although some traditions in Hawthorne's novel are incredibly strict and sometimes harsh, there are still lessons to be learned that are still true, today.

Another important lesson that should be learned from The Scarlet Letter is the importance of confession, not just in 1642, but today, too. Seneca was very wise in saying, "Let wickedness escape, as it may at the bar, it never fail of doing justice upon itself; for every guilty person is his own hangman".

Bibliography

1. Eldritch Press's Nathaniel Hawthorne Home Page. Eric Eldred. 18 Oct. 1999 web Webster's Book of Quotations.
1994 Ed.
New York: PMC, 1994.
3. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Scarlet Letter, The. New York: Signet Classic, 1959.