Submitted by: Submitted by mimiisbae
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Category: Literature
Date Submitted: 12/16/2014 06:59 PM
Dimmesdale is in many ways as central a character as Hester in the novel; for you as a reader, is he equally important to the story? (Lit Lovers pt/1 Question 3)
In my opinion Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is as important of a character as Hester Prynne. Dimmesdale is a Puritan Minister who is a true believer and is suppose to be at the top of Puritan faith. He was the second party involved with Hester’s sin of adultery, making him the father of her child Pearl. Though Hester is publicly shamed for her actions, she refuses to name who the father is, leaving Dimmesdale to acknowledge his guilt in private. Since Dimmesdale is a spiritual leader he is heavily burden by his sin, making him the main source of the stories theme of guilt. Dimmesdale tries to repent for his sin by asking his congration to treat him as a sinner, however instead of believing he is admitting to a sin, they think that he is just being a proper Puritan, (as they believe everyone is a sinner) and refuse to do so. Dimmesdale becomes overwhelmed with guilt and this results in mental and physical illness, he begins to starve and whip himself. He is restless and always has his hand on his chest as if his heart was hurt. It is later found out that Dimmesdale has a scarlet letter A carved into his chest, which integrates him with the title of the novel, The Scarlet Letter. Hester may have been the obvious adulterer who was punished by society, but Dimmesdale was the secret adulterer punished by his own spirit. Society saw Dimmesdale as a pure Puritan that had no true sins; they respected and looked up to him. This, however, did not stop Dimmesdale from inflecting self harm and feeling a burden of guilt. Hester was viewed as a horrible person and as a sinner, but she chose to be a good mother, gives help to those in need and contributes to the community. She did not let the scarlet A defy her, but rather she defied it. From Dimmesdale alone we learn that we cannot run away from our problems, from him...