Essay On Arthur Dimmesdale's Hypocrisy

The Scarlet Letter is a novel that was an eventful novel that was written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The novel takes place in Puritan America. This setting serves as a necessary fuel for the novel’s gears to continually turn from its beginning to its conclusion. The relationships housed in the book are also extremely important for the sustained survival of the plot. Many characters display moral frailties throughout The Scarlet Letter, thus creating a novel that challenges the reader’s ethics and logic. Arthur Dimmesdale routinely exemplifies the human frailty of hypocrisy, thus providing him much intra-personal conflict throughout the novel.. Arthur Dimmesdale’s hypocrisy is mentioned many times throughout The Scarlet Letter, however, it can be first seen in the novel’s beginning, particularly, chapter three. “... I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee on thy pedestal of shame…” (73). This excerpt from the novel serves as a prime example of Arthur Dimmesdale’s hypocrisy, as he could have easily confessed the sin of adultery that he committed with Hester. It can also be suggested that Dimmesdale …show more content…
Hester, Pearl, and Arthur are in the forest talking about their future as a family. “Will you go back with us, hand in hand, we thee together, into the town?” (200). Even in a situation like this, Arthur Dimmesdale is able to keep his life in the shadows extended by refusing Pearl’s ploy for Dimmesdale to become a father to her. This situation supports the common theme throughout The Scarlet Letter that Dimmesdale is brave when nobody is watching, much like the second scaffold scene, where he pleads people to shame him for his