We cannot look to our circumstances for reasons to do anything wrong. Dimmesdale is no different from the young boy that grows up in an abusive household beating his wife and claiming that he is not responsible because of his environment. Finally, Dimmesdale's suicide is the ultimate gesture of his weakness. He cannot be honest with those that assume to know him. He claims in these last moments that he withheld his "own heavy sin and miserable agony" (244) and now must let the truth be known. This is a brave move and it would have been even braver to live after confessing. Instead, he takes his own life. Many may assume that he took his own life because of grief and inner turmoil but it makes more sense to assume that he could not live with what he had done and he could not have lived with the kind of life that the truth would have offered him. He was a coward that finally buckled under pressure because a real man would not have left Hester and Pearl alone after what...
This is the wrong view because it allows him to get away with his behavior. We should instead look at Dimmesdale as the man he is - a deadbeat dad by modern terms. He committed the greatest sin because he did not own up to the truth. While he may have "suffered" while he was living a lie, he obviously did not suffer enough because he kept the secret for a long time while Hester took a beating almost every day because of it. Dimmesdale is the epitome of a television evangelist that is caught with a prostitute. The narrator in the novel maintains, "we are all sinners" (250) and this is true. That Dimmesdale tried to live above this fact only demonstrates how weak he was in matters of the heart and humanity.
That's a very sad thing and it again shows that lack of forgiveness in the Puritan society of 16th century. Pearl thus stands for innocence in the novel- innocence that is tainted by someone else's sins. Dimmesdale represents the psychological damage that wrong teachings of the Church could produce. He is also symbolizing the weakness in the structure of the Church. He is a minister who preaches people against adultery
While some individuals may believe that it is their right to frolic on the beach or even walk down the street without clothing, society as a whole has decided that this behavior is offensive. According to Peter Alces, morality is dynamic and may change over time, both from the individual and the group perspective. For example, slavery was once considered acceptable, a societal norm, a necessary economic institution (Alces). Yet,
Interestingly, his daughter Pearl is also the physical manifestation -- or at least the most incarnate presence -- of his redemption. It is after she kisses him that he dies, in a strange reversal where the sin, i.e. Pearl, shows her acceptance of the sinner, and the understanding this imparts to Dimmesdale frees his soul. It is not quite the happy redemptive ending the reader might feel he deserves,
Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne [...] ways in which the book is a critique of Puritanism. "The Scarlet Letter" was written in 1850, but it takes place in the 1600s, when Puritanism was at its height in New England. Hester Prynne, the heroine of the novel, is ostracized by a very strict and proper Puritan society, because of her affair with the Revered Arthur Dimmesdale. Puritan society had strict
She was a good woman, and she raised a good daughter. She shows how the Puritans also would not accept her because of her mother. This also symbolizes their intolerance, because they blame the child for the sins of the parent, and the child has no chance of redeeming herself. Hawthorne uses a child to make it more clear how intolerant and mean-spirited the Puritans were, and to show
139) This represents the first stirrings of change for the meaning of the scarlet letter from adultery to "able"; able to overcome tragedy with one's head held high; just as Hester Prynne had done. As Hester continues to contribute to the community through her seamstress and charity work, she becomes increasingly admired, once again changing the meaning of the scarlet letter. It has now surpassed mere ability to encompass admiration
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now