by Tessa Dick

Created on: April 26, 2009   Last Updated: April 27, 2009

Reverend Dimmesdale's Secret Sin in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne demonstrates the physical and psychological damage that secret sin can wreak upon the human body and soul in his novel, The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne has cheated on her husband, and she is found guilty by the Puritan society in which she lives, but she refuses to name her lover, even though they would lighten her sentence if she revealed his identity. Her lover and her husband both suffer greatly from their secret sins, while Hester and her love child suffer only lightly from Hester's publicly confessed sin. The two men torture themselves in private, while Hester bears only the light burden of public disapproval.

Hester Prynne wears the letter "A", a large red capital letter, on the back of every piece of her clothing. This sentence handed down upon her for the sin of becoming pregnant while her husband was away, shouts to the world that Hester has committed a terrible sin. Reverend Dimmesdale, on the other hand, hides his complicity in Hester's sin. He never acknowledges that he is the father of her child. Ironically, Hester names her daughter Pearl, after the parable about the pearl of great price. Jesus told the disciples about a man who bought the whole field in order to pluck out the pearl of great price from within that field of dirt and weeds. Hester's child is indeed worth all the pain, trouble and work that Hester must endure to raise her daughter and send her to school.

Dimmesdale might be secretly proud of his daughter, but he dares not admit that he has committed a carnal sin. He does feel guilty about his human weakness, which led him to become Hester's lover, and he torments himself in secret while she endures public shame. As a result, Hester grows strong over the course of the novel, while Dimmesdale grows weak. He tortures himself in secret, and the inner turmoil eats at his heart and soul. When Hester's husband returns, he disguises himself as Dr. Chillingsworth, and he treats Dimmesdale's illness. Chillingsworth becomes a villain, adding to Dimmesdale's inner torment when He sees that Dimmesdale has burned a large red letter "A" onto his own chest.

Chillingsworth seeks revenge for Dimmesdale's shabby treatment of his wife, even after Hester begs him to leave the ailing preacher alone. Pearl grows up willful and proud, and she rejects her mother. However, she is the only true survivor of the wages of sin. Hester spends her adult life working as a seamstress to support her love child, Dimmesdale tortures himself in secret and comes to an early end, and Chillingsworth becomes a bitter and spiteful old man who soon follows Dimmesdale to the grave.

The burden of Hester's sin is light because she displays it openly in public. Dimmesdale and Chillingsworth, on the other hand, suffer greatly under a huge burden because they keep their own sins inside the dark closets of their souls. Dimmesdale is destroyed by guilt, and Chillingsworth is destroyed by wrath. Hester survives, and Pearl thrives.

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