Author Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the reader that there are many similarities and difference on how the two main characters, Hester and Dimmesdale deal with their guilt in a pair of scaffold scenes where Hester is believed to have handled her guilt better because she learns from it while Dimmesdale just continues to torture himself. Two of the most important characters are Arthur Dimmesdale, who is a Puritan minister who has committed a crime of adultery and is being punished internally and Hester Prynne the other main character who also committed the crime of adultery is being punished externally by her town who is a majority of Puritans. During the time period Puritans thought of a committed sin as a crime worthy of death, especially adultery.
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Hester could not seem to believe what was going on in front of her own eyes, a reality almost as if she was in hell. She thought to herself “Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast, that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and shame were real. Yes!-these were her realities-all else had vanished”(117).With this imagery, it shows realization that she has not fully caught on with the impact of her actions, and only has just began to deal with all the shame she will start to receive. Dimmesdale on the other hand, seems to have not completely understand the magnitude of the crime and life he had just ruined, and he introduces to the reader one of his first traits in the book, his cowardness, “If thou feelist it to be for thy soul’s peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer!”(133).He speaks to Hester like this to disguise his actions himself from the crowd. Although Dimmesdale committed the same crime as Hester, he allows her to stand there and take in shame while repeatedly asking her to confess the man she had committed the sin
Hester could not seem to believe what was going on in front of her own eyes, a reality almost as if she was in hell. She thought to herself “Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast, that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and shame were real. Yes!-these were her realities-all else had vanished”(117).With this imagery, it shows realization that she has not fully caught on with the impact of her actions, and only has just began to deal with all the shame she will start to receive. Dimmesdale on the other hand, seems to have not completely understand the magnitude of the crime and life he had just ruined, and he introduces to the reader one of his first traits in the book, his cowardness, “If thou feelist it to be for thy soul’s peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer!”(133).He speaks to Hester like this to disguise his actions himself from the crowd. Although Dimmesdale committed the same crime as Hester, he allows her to stand there and take in shame while repeatedly asking her to confess the man she had committed the sin