Was Dimmesdale's Illness More Than Just A Physical Ailment

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne, a Puritan mother was tried and convicted of adultery and spent the rest of her life raising her child alone. Hester was forced to wear a scarlet letter embroidered on her chest, which served as a constant symbol of public shame and embarrassment. The Puritan people’s cruelty towards Hester carried on to her child, Pearl. Pearl was forced to live the early part of her life as an outcast of society. Although Pearl and Hester were forced to suffer under intense scrutiny for a large part of their lives, Pearl’s father remained untouched by punishment. Reverend Dimmesdale, Hester’s lover with whom she gave birth to Pearl, was too afraid to admit his sin for much of Hawthorne’s novel. From Pearl’s birth until the end of his life, however, Dimmesdale suffered intensely from sickness. Was Dimmesdale’s illness more than just a physical ailment? While Hester was publicly ridiculed for her sin, Dimmesdale’s guilt ate away at him in private. Because Dimmesdale was terrified of the consequences for …show more content…
The physical suffering and pain that Dimmesdale endured was metaphoric of the emotional pain that he went through in The Scarlet Letter. As he was forced to watch his daughter and the mother of his child suffer, the guilt of not admitting to his actions wore the reverend down. It caused him great heartache to see Hester suffer for a crime that he was involved in. Reverend Dimmesdale felt survivor’s guilt, because Hester was so harshly punished while he remained unscathed. However, because Hester’s crime was known by the public, she was able to move on from her mistake after many years. Reverend Dimmesdale, was forced to suffer in quiet, because he was too afraid to admit his act of adultery to anyone. It was not until his dying day that he confessed to being Pearl’s father, and by doing so he was able to die and happy