The Scarlet Letter 5

A detailed Summary of The Scarlet Letter 5


"But (Hester) is not the protagonist; the chief actor, and the tragedy of The Scarlet Letter is not her tragedy, but Dimmesdales. He it was whom the sorrows of death encompassed..... His public confession is one of the noblest climaxes of tragic literature."

This statement by columnist Randall Stewart does not contain the same ideas that I believed were contained within The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I, on the contrary to Stewart's statement, think Dimmesdale is a coward and a hypocrite. Worse yet, he is a self-confessed coward and hypocrite. He knows what he has to do to quiet the voice of his conscience and make his peace with God. Throughout the entire story his confession remains an obstacle. While Hester is a relatively constant character, Dimmesdale is incredibly dynamic. From his fall with Hester, he moves, in steps, toward his public hint of sinning at the end of the novel. He tries to relieve himself of his sin by revealing it to his congregation, but somehow can never quite manage this. He is a typical diagnosis of a "wuss".

To some extent, Dimmesdale's story is one of a single man tempted into the depths of the hormonal world. T


Hawthorne writes, "According to these highly respectable witnesses, the minister, conscious that he was dying,--conscious, also, that the reverence of the multitude placed him already among saints and angels...". Hawthorne simply can't accept Dimmesdale's total redemption any more than he could Hester's, the same reason being: sin is permanent. When Hawthorne follows this passage with, "Without disputing a truth so momentous," it is clear he is being sarcastic.

Dimmesdale's problem, during the course of the story, is that he isn't much of a priest. He has lost his faith, and is untrue to himself, his congregation, and his god. Yet his penance has been much more harsh. It seems that the heroic effort Dimmesdale makes to climb back into the light is an effort that only a desperate man could have made. He used all his strength to make one final grasp at redemption but still falls quite short.

All of these statements and observations make it quite clear that Dimmesdale is a complete coward. He has the chance throughout the entire novel to confess. Despite it all, he is caught up in the fame and the excitement of his reverend-hood, which pushes him down the "slippery slope" inch

Some common words found in the essay are:
God Throughout, Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Randall Stewart, Letter Hester, scarlet letter, throughout entire, slippery slope, randall stewart, sin hester, coward hypocrite,

Approximate Word count = 798
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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