Dimmesdale's Perception Of Justice

Sam Killermann once said, “If you can do nothing else, do whatever is in your power to make the people in your life feel completely unashamed of who they are” (Killermann). This meaningful quote pertains to Dimmesdale and his personal interpretation of justice. Dimmesdale was respectable and upright, a G-d fearer and priest, an elite and a main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. When Dimmesdale realized he committed an unjust action, Dimmesdale attempted to keep other’s sheltered from the news so that their lives won't change; Dimmesdale believed that shielding his community from the truth would be the best course of action. This course of action effectively exonerated him of a crime he committed because it was not publicly …show more content…
Someone can perceive justice as punishing someone who committed an illegal act, and someone can just as easily believe that justice is repaying the victims for their loss or damages. Dimmesdale’s perception of justice takes the form of a response to a criminal event which is the best fit for the community. In the book on page thirty-eight and thirty-nine, Dimmesdale dances around publicly confessing to the scandal and he compelled Hester to keep their illegal love a secret. Dimmesdale realizes that he is an elite figure in their society and his being caught in an affair would damage the community more than if Hester exposed his sins. Also, being a preacher and committing such a high-profile crime would be more disgraceful and disgusting; the community would be hurt in an unfathomable way to see a G-d abiding man fall to temptation. E. C. Ross from Miami University emphasised in his explanation of the crime that Dimmesdale and Hester spent, “seven years [as] outlaws” (Ross 37: 59). Basically, Ross is saying this long-term secrecy was not an accident, but how Dimmesdale saw it best to respond to the situation. Even though Dimmesdale successfully eluded the public’s punishments of his illegal activity by keeping his actions a secret, he knows he should still be penalized. While Hester was being publicly harassed by the townspeople, Dimmesdale assumed that she will be looking for revenge and will announce him as the other lover so that she wouldn’t be the only one being assaulted. To quench her thirst for vengeance he stated that he will have, “to hide a guilty heart through life” (Hawthorne 49). For Dimmesdale, keeping his wrong doings a secret would cripple him more than having his mistakes publicized. Not only did Dimmesdale know that he should undergo internal pain to uphold his