He feels the guilt of having left Hester to deal with all of the shame and humiliation alone. One of the ways his guilt is expressed is the night in which he stood on the same place that Hester did seven years before. This shows his guilt because it shows what he has wanted to do, but has not been able to. He felt guilty of having Hester go through such difficult moments alone when he was also part of the sin which they both committed. He felt that they should both share the same troubles, instead of him living peacefully while she was seen as the women who had cheated on her husband and carried the scarlet letter. This is something that he carried for seven years, a guilt which he felt day by day and especially more the times which he saw Pearl. Dimmesdale had to carry this alone and could not tell anyone about it for fear that something horrible might happen, such as both him and Hester be sentenced to death. Many men would not have recognized their child during the 17th century if something like adultery were to happen yet the guilt which Arthur Dimmesdale felt throughout the seven years and at the moment of his death had him caused him to tell the people that he was the father of Pearl. This shows that some men during the 17th …show more content…
Hester Prynne shows bravery by standing up for the adultery which she committed in front of the whole town alone with only her child in her arms. While the father was not brave enough to stand with her at the moment in which she needed him the most. She is brave enough to recognize her sin and present herself to the crowd without knowing how they are going to react or what to expect from them. Hester still walks in the town of Boston even though she is talked about, insulted, and treated like and outsider. This is very brave because as a woman with no rights and who many men would consider a decoration to their house or another thing they had to take care of just because she was a woman and now that she has the scarlet letter see her as something worse. This means that men treat her worse than they would treat a normal woman at the time. Yet she is able to stand all of this and not be give up in life or be afraid that the Puritans might decide themselves to one night in her sleep kill her, or do something horrible to her. She does not stay locked away in her house and in the 17th century many women were not willing to care for their children alone they wanted a paternal figure to be there for them. Yet Hester is brave enough to be a mother without a father for her daughter, she as a single mother is able to bring up her child alone and with her own work not having to rely on a man,