Dimmesdale's Guilt In Scarlet Letter

Even when Hester Prynne was publicly shamed on the scaffold, she refused to name her lover’s name. This secret of the lover’s name affected Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale greatly, although he was involved in the secret, Dimmesdale could not deal with the guilt he was feeling and his health started to deteriorate, “His form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy prophecy of in it; he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart with a first flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain” (Hawthorne 90). When Dimmesdale places his hand over his chest, it represents the scarlet letter on Hester Prynne’s bosom. Dimmesdale’s health begins to decline because he feels guilty of the sin he committed with Hester Prynne. The guilt from the secret that Hester Prynne …show more content…
On that spot in very truth, there was and there had long been growing poisonous tooth of bodily pain” (Hawthorne 111).
Since Hester does not want to reveal who Pearl’s father is, it affects Dimmesdale even after seven years, “She had witness the intense misery beneath which the minister struggled, or, to speak more accurately, had ceased to struggle. She saw that he stood on the verge of lunacy, if he had not already stepped across it” (Hawthorne 124). Dimmesdale is not able to let go of In this book, Hester Prynne’s secret was not only a burden to her, but to Pearl also. In the beginning of the book Hester Prynne was the only character who knew who the father is. Prynne was asked to reveal the father’s name, if she revealed the father’s name she was able to take the scarlet letter off her chest. Even with that circumstance, she would not reveal the name and kept it a secret. She was willing to leave Pearl fatherless. By keeping the father’s name a secret, Pearl was affected because even at an early age she asked her mother who her father