His life, viewed by so many as a blessing, as an example of perfect faith and elation. He was one who was well respected and when he spoke, everyone stopped to listen. With the very sound of his avid voice when he stood on the pulpit, all felt restored from whatever pain they were enduring. But what no one knew about this man was of the guilt, the sin, the physical pain and of the many tribulations that Arthur Dimmesdale kept to himself. Suffering is part of life. It follows the compunction of having committed a crime or sin because of the remorse and/or punishment that sits in your conscience corrupting your thoughts, behaviors and eventually your health - slowly driving you to a state of indisposition. Dimmesdale, the well-educated Puritan
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But the description we have of Hester’s physical appearance when we are first introduced to her does not change by the end of the novel. Unlike Dimmesdale, her body did not reflect the burden of her sin. The narrator remarks on her beauty throughout her first appearance and states that “Here was the taint of deepest sin the most sacred quality of woman’s beauty, and the most lost for the infant she had borne” (1034). In other words, her sin only seems to exist in the minds of others because without foreknowledge of her guilt, she would be an otherwise beautiful woman holding an infant. It is at this first section where it begins to be clear that Hester might not think of her sin the same way her society does and thus she does not physically bear the marks of her guilt aside from the scarlet letter that is displayed on her bosom. Hester also went through all of her suffering with a companion. With someone who tied her to life making it worth living. Hester had Pearl who she was able to be herself around. She had someone who she loved and was responsible for. Where Dimmesdale had no one. He had no form of help or advice he could receive from anyone, all the suffering he did was between him and himself. He had no one to take his mind off the fact and he had nobody to love
But the description we have of Hester’s physical appearance when we are first introduced to her does not change by the end of the novel. Unlike Dimmesdale, her body did not reflect the burden of her sin. The narrator remarks on her beauty throughout her first appearance and states that “Here was the taint of deepest sin the most sacred quality of woman’s beauty, and the most lost for the infant she had borne” (1034). In other words, her sin only seems to exist in the minds of others because without foreknowledge of her guilt, she would be an otherwise beautiful woman holding an infant. It is at this first section where it begins to be clear that Hester might not think of her sin the same way her society does and thus she does not physically bear the marks of her guilt aside from the scarlet letter that is displayed on her bosom. Hester also went through all of her suffering with a companion. With someone who tied her to life making it worth living. Hester had Pearl who she was able to be herself around. She had someone who she loved and was responsible for. Where Dimmesdale had no one. He had no form of help or advice he could receive from anyone, all the suffering he did was between him and himself. He had no one to take his mind off the fact and he had nobody to love