The Scarlet Letter-Dimmesdale's Symbolism

A detailed Summary of The Scarlet Letter-Dimmesdale's Symbolism

The Scarlet Letter, Hathorne's classic novel about romance and the Puritan nature, at least that's what most people think. On the other hand some educated people think that Hathorne is taking the shame of his ancestors upon himself. His earliest predecessor in America was William Hathorne. William Hathorne arrived with John Winthrop, later governor of Massachusetts. William became a major in the Salem militia and also was Speaker of the House of Delegates. He had every quality of a Puritan, both good and evil. He was remembered by Quakers for being intolerable towards Quaker women.

William's son, Jon, was also an influence and 'disgrace' to Nathaniel. Jon was a judge at the salem witch trials. ( It is he who is mentioned in the Custom House as having "made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him."[Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter {New York: Penguin Books, 1959}21]). Nathaniel Hathorne's reaction may have led him to say ,"I, the present writer, as their representative, hereby take shame upon myself for the sakes, and remove any curse incurred by them."

This shame Hathorne took upon himself is enough to account for what he desi

gnates as one of the many morals which Dimmesdale's experience might provide the reader. This moral is placed in the final chapter of the novel where he writes,"Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!"(242) . Also, Hathorne might have run across court records for two of his maternal ancestors, Anstis and Margaret Manning. They were convicted of having committed incest with their brother, Nicholas. They were publicly whipped in the town square showing the nature of their crime. The Adultery found in The Scarlet Letter may be a substitution for this crime.

Dimmesdale gets a physician, Roger Chillingsworth, who is Dimmesdale's healer as Dimmesdale gets sicker and sicker. The crowds in the city think this illness is caused by "his too unreserved self-sacrifice to the labors and duties of the pastoral relation"(109), but the real reason is foreshadowed by Pearl, daughter of Hester Pryne, who says "'Come away, Mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already'"(132). Chillingsworth is the first to say the illness is directly related to the clergyman's spirit"'Thus, a sickness...a sore place, if we may so call it in your spirit, hath immediately it appropriate manifestation in your bodily frame'"(134).

After many years of this 'disease' eating away at his soul Dimmesdale finally confesses, much to Chillingsworth's disapproval "' People of New England!' cried he, with a voice that rose over them, high, solemn, and majestic- yet had always a tremor through it, and sometimes a shriek, struggling up out of fathomless depth of remorse and

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1128
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English