Reverend Dimmesdale In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter

female character. These attributes are demonstrated throughout the whole novel. Although Hester was often criticized by the crowd for committing adultery, she never accepted to take in those words to bring her down. She wasn’t afraid to show her scarlet letter “A” to the crowd because she wanted to affirm to her mistakes. On the contrary, Reverend Dimmesdale never owned up to the punishment that Hester had to suffer through alone. Dimmesdale didn’t reveal to the crowd his secret until his last moments of death. It’s a bit ironic how Hester managed to stay strong and endured all this criticism, while Dimmesdale became a coward and only revealed the truth only because he wouldn’t be there to experience the punishment. The contrast between Hester …show more content…
She was criticized by the crowd because she possessed a baby child, named Pearl, yet her husband hasn’t been around in years. The crowd demanded for Hester to remark who the father of the child was so he could also endure the punishment of adultery, but she remained silent. We begin to uncover who Hester’s husband is, a man that entitles himself as Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth begins to suspect a man named, Reverend Dimmesdale to being the father of Hester’s child, Pearl. Dimmesdale feels very ill and acknowledges the fact that he won’t live very long and takes Chillingworth as his doctor. This gave Chillingworth opportunity to scrutinize on Dimmesdale to discover if he truly is Hester’s affair. Chillingworth begins to torture Dimmesdale psychologically, in hopes of him revealing to the public the affair, and in the end he opens his shirt and reveals the scarlet letter “A” to the public, moments before his death. Despite Hester Prynne’s role in the novel, how may gender have an impact on the importance of the …show more content…
Men are usually the ones who are to take the blame to protect their loved ones from being convicted. In this novel, it’s completely the opposite. Hester took the blame all to herself and didn’t confess the name of her affair. This challenged stereotype goes against the reinforced stereotype that all men are stronger than women. Another example that supports this statement is that men are usually the ones who support the family in any needs. Hester had to support her own self when her husband, Roger Chillingworth, mysteriously disappeared for a couple of years. Hester even began to assume her husband had died. This challenged stereotype goes against the reinforced stereotype that all men are the ones who put food on the table. The last example that supports this statement is that men are usually the ones who want sex. Women in the novel are very looked down upon because they are seductive and break the law into adultery. This stereotype is false because even when