The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Black Man lurks within Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale’s soul. Dimmesdale alternates between good and evil, but eventually the strength of evil begins to overcome him. At first, only being a hypocrite but then helping Hester gain Pearl’s custody, but then turning thoughts of evil into legitimate actions. Throughout this novel, Dimmesdale continues to struggle with the pull of the devil upon his character and his personality.
The evil actions and thoughts that spread throughout the pages of the novel affect and become evident Dimmesdale the most. The first occurrence of this pull upon his character, begins in the first few pages. Not only are assumptions made about Dimmesdale’s character, but hidden from site is the first incident that begins his character deterioration. When Hester stands alone on the scaffold with Pearl clutched up against her bosom, many people ask who the adulteress’s partner is. Little do we or they know that her partner is Dimmesdale. He stands among the crowd as a hypocrite and a liar.
But the reader, as well as the crowd, does not know his secret and will continue to puzzle out the mystery: “It irks me, nevertheless, that the partner of her iniquity should not, at least, stand on the scaffold by her side. But he will be known! – he will be known! – he will be known! ” (Hawthorne, p. g 59).
And even when the authorities push for the truth, Dimmesdale remains as silent as a mouse. Although Dimmesdale knows he has sinned and he tries to redeem himself to Hester and become a better person. On the verge of losing her child, Hester turns to
The Essay on Scarlet Letter Dimmesdale Guilt Hester
The Conscience s Roll in Dealing with Guilt and Shame What power the conscience holds, as it can, will bring a person to his doom. Throughout the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the main characters, Reverend Dimmesdale, expresses his feeling of guilt best by his action. The story evolves around Hester Prynne, the Sinner of Adultery, and her everyday life with her ...
Dimmesdale to fight for her and Pearl to stay together. After much debate, some of which is heartwrenching for Hester on the thought of losing Pearl, Governor Bellingham finally gives in and agrees to let them stay together. Although he still has managed to keep a portion of his good side, he doesn’t wipe his soul of his hypocritical actions. It was only a matter of time before Roger Chillingworth realized that Dimmesdale was part of the sin. After much push of guilt and evil by Chillingworth, such as verbally prying the secret from Dimmesdale’s soul, Dimmesdale began to crack.
He tries to tell society he was the sinner with Hester and clear his soul of guilt, but no one believes him and the guilt began to cut deeper like a dagger in the heart: “I am not the man for whom you take me! ’ his friends, no doubt, would still have insisted with him, – ‘thou art thyself the man! ” (195).
Hawthorne was beginning to metaphorically show that even the good things in a Puritan society, like a reverend such as Dimmesdale, can become evil with sin. As the story progresses, the evil began to become a part of Dimmesdale and grew inside his personality like an incurable disease.
He began to think of acts of evil but soon put them into action. “At every step he was incited to do strange, wild, wicked thing or other, with a sense that it would be at once involuntary and intentional” (195).
But even when Dimmesdale seemes evil through and through, people still believe him to be holy and without sin. Dimmesdale began to fall into a downward spiral struggling with the constant digging at his soul by Chillingworth, the disbelief of his sin by the people, and his constant inability to be able to tell the truth.
Now, the good in his soul began to diminish like a candle in a room of darkness. The Black Man, also known as Roger Chillingworth, began to grab his heart in its iron grasp and squeeze the life from it. Eventually, the pull became too much, like the ocean on a plant that eventually becomes uprooted. Dimmesdale’s soul snaps. After his election speech, he turns to Hester and Pearl and calls them to the scaffold, the place where Dimmesdale can escape the claws of Chillingworth.
The Essay on Scarlet Letter Nature Pearl Hester
... Dimmesdale dodged the missile filled with guilt that would have stuck to him had he not ducked. Pearl constantly reminds and tortures Hester ... show the positive effects of individualism, the soul and freedom as only being positive. By ... explored in the Scarlet Letter. Also the evil and sin in humans are also explored ... because she knows not the ways of man and Puritan society. She was born an ...
They stand upon the scaffold and Dimmesdale wobbles back and forth showing his deterioration. As she drew nigh, the arch-fiend whispered him to condense into small compass and drop into her tender bosom a germ of evil that would be sure to blossom darkly soon, and bear black fruit betimes” (197).
Dimmesdale tried to reveal his secret by showing the A upon his chest, but many didn’t even see it and some still don’t know who the real father of Pearl was. Upon the scaffold, the Black Man seized his heart and silenced its beating. Even though Dimmesdale was a hypocrite in the beginning, Hester, still seeing the good in Dimmesdale, held his head as he died against her bosom.
Although the sad death of Dimmesdale brings tears upon Pearl and Hester’s cheeks, the devil within Dimmesdale shines a bright message upon us like a lighthouse upon the sea. Speaking the truth is most important. If Dimmesdale would have stood upon the scaffold, in the beginning of the story, with the letter A on his chest with Hester and Pearl, his death wouldn’t have been so near. The Black Man feeds on the evil and sin in ones soul and for him, Dimmesdale was the perfect candidate. But as Hawthorne says, “Be true, be true be true. ”
