Arthur Dimmesdale's Sin

Walking through Puritan-populated town of Boston during the 17th century, you wouldn’t think of taking a second glance at anything. But on a particular day, you would see a women standing upon a scaffold, a baby cradled in her arms, conspicuously trying to hide something behind her child. The scent of hatred wafting through the dense air full of angry Puritans could be smelt from a mile away. It was impossible to turn away from the look of pain in the women’s eyes; the way her face longed for a wall of security, the insecure posture of her body, but most importantly you saw the look of self-failure on the face of Hester Prynne. But in the crowd, a man longing for self-repentance would be seen, a man by the name of Arthur Dimmesdale. While both …show more content…
Arthur Dimmesdale was surrounded by the constant guilt of his own mind. He had become so physically consumed with the fact that he was hiding this dreadful secret inside of him that it “was his custom, too, as it has been that of many other pious Puritans, to fast,—not, however, like them, in order to purify the body and render it the fitter medium of celestial illumination,—but rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance” (Hawthorne 171). Dimmesdale had become so unstable with himself that he feels as if torturing his own self is the only way to release some of the …show more content…
One of the biggest reasons that Dimmesdale emotionally struggled with his situation was because of the position he held. Arthur Dimmesdale was a minister and felt as if he had no path to follow anymore. His whole life, Dimmesdale had worked to become as sinless as possible, and felt as if his life had no more purpose. God would not forgive Dimmesdale or his wrong doing, leaving him is utter despair and no motivation towards anything. He no longer becomes the man that everyone had once known, even to the point where a woman came up to him, one who had known him for 30 years, requesting for him to speak the word of the Gospel, but “as the great enemy of souls would have it, (Dimmesdale)could recall no text of Scripture” (Hawthorne 262). Another example of how Dimmesdale suffered the most in the novel was the fact that he could never seem to speak the words of confession from his own mouth. Throughout the book, Arthur Dimmesdale constantly told people “I am not the man you think I am” trying to persuade the people that he was a man of great sin and guilt (Hawthorne 261). However, not until the very end of the book, did Dimmesdale burst out his confessions and share the truth that had torn him from the inside out for seven years. Even though he had not worn the scarlet letter upon his bosom for the whole world to see, none of that mattered. What