In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s gripping narrative. The Scarlet Letter. a august Puritan curate suffers from cowardly guilt and lip service after he commits adultery in this novel staged in the 17th century. Arthur Dimmesdale. who hides himself in the shame of his lover. Hester Prynne. protects his repute among the Puritan people. The scaffold. a public symbol of shame. contrasts with the pastor’s soundless wickedness of criminal conversation. When Hester became a symbol of wickedness among the people and wore the vermilion missive as penalty. Dimmesdale bears a sinner’s masked grade in his bosom. As a consequence of his hidden wickedness. Dimmesdale suffers from guilt and lip service. Over the class of the three scaffold scenes. Dimmesdale alterations from cowardly guilt and lip service. to desperate guilt and lip service. and eventually to repentant hope.
In the first scaffold scene. Dimmesdale is cognizant of his guilt and lip service when he inquiries his lover. Hester Prynne. but is excessively cowardly to squeal his wickedness. Questioning the fornicatress from a balcony alongside the religious and political leaders of the Puritan settlement. the writer. Nathaniel Hawthorne. correlatives Dimmesdale’s elevated place among the Puritan settlement and shows Dimmesdale’s repute at interest. Puting force per unit area on the immature adult female. Dimmesdale pleads. “Be non silent from any misguided commiseration and tenderness for him ; for believe me. Hester. though he were to step down from a high topographic point and stand there beside thee. on thy base of shame. yet better were it so. than to conceal a guilty bosom through life. ”1 Mutely relieved by her silence. Dimmesdale cowardly withheld his wickedness from the populace.
The significance of Dimmesdale’s cowardliness analogues with the shame and fright of the scaffold and the jeer it brings. Seven old ages subsequently. in the 2nd scaffold scene. Dimmesdale is despairing to squeal because his guilt and lip service have merely increased. but he manages merely a cowardly private dry run of his confession. In the still of the dark. Dimmesdale urgently climbed the scaffold and shrieked aloud. “It is done! ”2 It was non so. Shrieking aloud like those enduring psyches who turn off from the face of God. Dimmesdale felt small alleviation from the Fe ironss of guilt and lip service. Hankering to liberate his guilty psyche. Dimmesdale stood on the scaffold imagining Hester’s shame. Exemplifying his inner struggles. Dimmesdale had expressed himself by shouting aloud. Immediate horror encompassed him because he is afraid of being discovered by the town. Entirely in the abysm of darkness. upon the base of shame. Dimmesdale found small alleviation in his private confession in the 2nd scaffold scene.
Finally. a few yearss subsequently. Dimmesdale confesses his wickedness publically in the 3rd scaffold scene. demoing his penitence and thereby happening alleviation from guilt and lip service. Leting his wickedness to maturate in his bosom for over seven old ages. Dimmesdale. now a deceasing adult male from wickedness. decided to go up the scaffold. Dimmesdale. apprehension that he. a deceasing adult male. sought clemency and forgiveness. and climbed the base in guilty compunction. “Ye that have loved me! —ye. that have deemed me holy! —behold me here. the one evildoer of the universe! At last I stand upon the topographic point where seven old ages since. I should hold stood! ”3 Beckoning Hester and their kid. Pearl. to his side. Dimmesdale’s voice strengthened. As he confesses. the people recognized Dimmesdale bore the same stigma that marked Hester. Dimmesdale asks for forgiveness. hence finishing his necessary responsibility to have the benefit of delivering grace and hope and let go ofing himself from the devil’s clasps.
A dramatic character. Dimmesdale alterations through the class of three scaffold scenes as a consequence of his hidden wickednesss. Arthur Dimmesdale acknowledges his wickedness in the last scaffold scene as he realizes his cowardliness when Hester is punished and acknowledges his agonies caused by his hidden wickednesss seven old ages subsequently. Driven by the realisation that his offenses order his life. Dimmesdale’s sins choked him from a deeper religious life. At first without success. Arthur Dimmesdale tried to liberate himself. but doesn’t do so until the 3rd scaffold scene when he eventually confesses. In decision. Nathaniel Hawthorne. the writer of The Scarlet Letter. reminds the reader to be wary of fearful guilt and lip service as demonstrated in Arthur Dimmesdale’s character: “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the universe. if non your worst. yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred. ”4 Free of guilt and lip service in his public confession. Dimmesdale died in hope of God’s clemency.
1-4 Nathaniel Hawthorne. the Scarlet Letter ( Dover Thrift Study Edition: The Complete Work + Comprehensive Study Guide: Copyright 2009 by Dover Publications ) p. 47. p. 102. p. 127. p. 174
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