Poetry

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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 daughter, Pearl. Hester Prynne was sent to live in Boston, by her husband, but has not been seen for two years and is thought to be dead. Hester moves on and has an affair, with whom is a mystery, and along comes Pearl. Hester is punished on the scaffold and the lover never confesses. Hester's sworn secret to her lover's identity is the essence of Dimmesdale's guilt. The significance of the three scaffold scenes shows Dimmesdale's change from weak to strong.

During the first scaffold scene, Hester is publicly humiliated. She is openly punished to the public, for her sin of Adultery. She is ordered to wear a scarlet letter "A" on the bosom of her clothes for her entire life, and she is to serve three hours of scaffold time, being tortured through embarrassment and humiliation. In this particular scene, Dimmesdale has control of his guilt to t

Each scaffold scene in the novel conveys the development of Dimmesdale's character through the plot. The scenes represent a milestone in this development. From the beginning and to the end, Dimmesdale goes through both emotional illness and physical illness. The guilt he holds throughout the novel causes his physical sickness, making him weak and pale, and has his body start to decay. Emotionally, he starts to go into a state of insanity, which is the cause for Chillingworth's care. The every scene containing the scaffold portrays his state of sickness. Dimmesdale is a perfect example in showing how the conscience can control a person and lead them to their destruction.

he point where he can handle it, by his nonchalant attitude and intrigue to find out who Hester's lover is. Being the pastor, Dimmesdale is asked by Rev. Wilson to talk to Hester. Using this as an opportunity to try and get Hester to confess his sin for him, Dimmesdale asks for a public confession of her lover's name. Keeping her secret, Hester announces that Pearl's father is of a heavenly figure. " I will not speak! Any my child must seek a heavenly Father; she shall never known an earthly one!" (P 47). The conspiracy of Hester and her lover's relationship and her kept secret, add to the guilt Dimmesdale has. Dimmesdale's guilt continues to grow throughout the novel, leading him to the scaffold two more times.

At the end of the novel, Dimmesdale faces his fear and approaches the scaffold for the last time. His guilt has driven him to a point in his life in which he can no longer bear as the unknown lover. He has become pale and weak, and he is

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Approximate Word count = 1097
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English