Who Is Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter

In the beginning of the story Dimmesdale is sensitive towards the townspeople and his secret family, but as the story progresses Dimmesdale becomes less caring, and more self absorbed with his problems. One night while he was on the scaffold with Pearl and Hester, Pearl asks Dimmesdale, “Will thou stand here with mother and me, to-morrow noontide? inquired Pearl. Nay; not so, my little Pearl, answered the minister” (139). Hester and Pearl both had to stand on the scaffold and be judged in front of the whole town, but Dimmesdale never had and the townspeople have no idea of his sin. When Pearl asks her father to stand upon the scaffold with them in the daylight, he is too worried to lose reputation with the townspeople, and denies his daughter's request. Later on when Dimmesdale and Hester are talking, he says to her, “Happy are you, Hester that wear the scarlet letter openly upon …show more content…
When Hester and Chillingworth are speaking of Dimmesdale, Chillingworth says “his spirit lacked the strength that could have borne up, as thine as, beneath a burden like thy scarlet letter.” (155). What Chillingworth is indirectly saying about Dimmesdale is that his soul is not strong enough to carry the guilt of the scarlet letter like Hester has. This also shows that Dimmesdale is motivated by his guilt to preach a good sermon, but is not able to handle the trouble like he preaches to. Dimmesdale knows hiding his sin is the cause of the guilt he feels, he even is “conscious that the poison of one morbid spot was infecting his heart’s entire substance, attributed all his presentiments to no other cause” (128). Dimmesdale is a Puritan minister and is supposed to be very godly and honest. But Dimmesdale knows that with the depth of this sin, he cannot admit it without being severely punished or even executed. So Dimmesdale goes on with this guilt in his heart hiding his sin, and losing more of his Puritan presence each