Dimmesdale as Tragic Hero
One may ask how The Scarlet Letter would fit the structure of a classical tragedy. The answer to this question is quite simple if you know how to identify a tragedy. A tragedy is a story that depicts serious incidents in which protagonists undergo a change from happiness to suffering, and often involves the death of others as well as the main characters. In The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale follows this structure perfectly. He is happy in the beginning, and then declines into suffering and finally, death. Many people believe that despite his less than noble actions, Dimmesdale can be considered the tragic hero. In order for us to give him that identity, we must investigate how Dimmesdale fits the characteristics of a tragic hero. In my opinion, if Dimmesdale is the hero, he must be in a high social state, have a tragic flaw, and fall to his ultimate fate. Being the minister of the town qualifies Dimmesdale as a person of high social status. He is loved by many people for giving his intelligent and persuasive sermons. Almost every hero that has ever existed had this quality of high social status. If you look back into time, Beowulf, Superman, King Arthur: these heroes were all looked up to by many. In ord
No person can be perfect. Even heroes have to have some kind of flaw. Dimmesdale's tragic flaw is his overpowering emotions. When Dimmesdale would preach to the people, he would preach with such strong emotions that began to take him over. Soon enough, his emotions are what led to his tragic downfall. When Hester had a child and was accused of adultery, Dimmesdale would not confess that he was Hester's lover and the father of her child. In turn, he suffered even more by hiding his secret sin. He felt so guilty of the sin that he had committed that he began to torment himself physically and psychologically. His guilt overwhelmed him and he began to torture himself so much that he developed a heart condition. When he finally confessed and told the townspeople that he was the adulterer, his emotions took over again and he died on the scaffold. Like many other heroes in the past, Dimmesdale's flaw led to his downfall. His emotions killed him. I do not believe that all heroes should suffer so much from their flaw, but they need to have something that is wrong with them. They need to have some sort of defect. They need something that ordinary people can relate with. Strong emotions were Dimmesdale's. er for heroes to earn their names, they must have people that believe in them. In The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale had many people believing in him. His pe
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Approximate Word count = 914
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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