Scarlet letter 8
Scarlet letter 8Hawthorne's novel describes the life of an adulteress, Hester Prynne, who is shunned by her judgmental community. She gave birth to her daughter Pearl out of wedlock, while her “partner of iniquity,”(Hawthorne 59) a minister named Arthur Dimmesdale, never revealed his “black secret” of their affair. Although Hester suffered public ridicule, the minister suffered no immediate consequence. However, guilt has a way of killing a person silently. In the end, Dimmesdale's black secret had a greater negative impact on him than Pearl, who was the consequence of sin, had on Hester. This is because Dimmesdale chose to hide his sin from the church but Hester had no way to conceal her sin. Dimmesdale watched Hester and Pearl take all the blame and ridicule for the lover’s sins, and he avoided his family in order to preserve his image.
Although Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale had numerous opportunities to confess the truth of his sin to his church, he chose to hold the black secret inside himself. On the other hand, Hester Prynne could not hide the truth because Pearl and the scarlet letter “A” were open confessions of her sin. Hester had committed adultery and she felt that “God, as a direct consequence of the sin, had given her a child, whose place was on that same dishonored bosom.”(82) Pearl was sent from God as a reminder to Hester and the Puritan community of her sin each and every day. However, Hester chose not to tell who Pearl's father was. “Pearl was the scarlet letter in another form, the scarlet letter endowed with life.”(88) Pearl and the scarlet letter were one in the same. Both represented Hester's sin she carried with her day after day. Both brought shame to her life. “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A.” The embarrassment Hester felt could not have exceeded Dimmesdale's guilty conscience. He felt ashamed for not confessing to the church congregation that he had played a large role in the horrific sin. He had several chances to confess his black secret, but he did not do so. With each passing failure to disclose the truth, he grew more and more dark and disgraced. One example was when Dimmesdale spoke to Hester on the scaffold, which was a high platform located in the middle of the town. Dimmesdale tried to persuade her to announce her partner in this sinful act. When she refused to acknowledge him, he was extremely relieved. He quickly said, “She will not speak! Wondrous strength and generosity of a woman's heart! She will not speak!”(64)
Dimmesdale was also given an opportunity to confess at Governor Bellingham's estate, when they were deciding whether Hester should be allowed to raise Pearl. Dimmesdale did influence their decision, but never once mentioned Pearl was his daughter....
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