Arthur
Dimmesdale is fully and painfully conscious of the sin that he has committed.
He knows that he has sinned against God against social morality, and against
his own integrity as an individual and as a priest. He knows also that he is
doubly a sinner in so far as he continues to conceal his sin. His sense of sin
not only weighs, but preys, upon his mind ceaselessly. His sin inwardly isolates
him from the community, and the deliberate concealment of his sin deepens that
isolation. The secrecy which he maintains and the sense of isolation from his
professional brethren and from the community in general drives him almost mad. Apart from his keen awareness of adultery as a
sin, he knows that he is a hypocrite and a moral coward. The sense of sin in
him is thus heightened and intensified, and allows him no peace of mind.
The public worship by which Dimmesdale is
surrounded adds to the torture of Dimmesdale's sense of sin. He genuinely
adores the truth and he longs to speak out, from his own pulpit, in his loudest
voice, and tell the people what he is. He wants to tell them
that
he, their pastor, whom they reverence deeply and trust comp letely, is utterly
"a pollution and a lie." More than once, in the course of his
sermons, he actually tells his hearers that "he was altogether vile, a
viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners
an
abomination, a thing of unimaginable iniquity; and that the only wonder was
that they did not see his wretched body shrivelled up before their eyes, by the
burning wrath of the Almighty." But his bearers, instead of tearing him to
pieces, begin to show him even more reverence because they attribute his words
not to any actual sinfulness on his part but to his spirit of humility and
self-efface These people would thus comment on his words: “The godly youth! The
saint on earth." And Dimmesdale knew well, "subtle but remorseful
hypocrite" that he was, that his vague confession would be viewed in that
light, "He speaks to his parishioner the very truth, and yet, transforms
it into the veriest falsehood.” And yet, by the constitution of his nature, he
loves the truth, and hates the lie, as few men ever do. Therefore, above all
things else, he begins to hate his miserable self.
So tormented is Dimmesdale by his sense of
sin that be begins to impose upon himself the severest possible penance. He observes
rigid fasts with the object of purifying his body. He keeps vigils night after
night in order 'to purify his mind. He lashes himself with a scourge till he
begins to bleed. One midnight he mounts the scaffold as another act of penance
but, as the author points out, this action is only a "mockery of
penitence." He is driven to the scaffold by that remorse which pursues him
everywhere. - Poor, miserable
man",
says the author with reference to Dimmesdale, What right had infirmity like his
to burden itself with crime? Crime is for the iron-nerved, who have their
choice either to endure it, or, if it pressed too hard, to exert their fierce
and savage strength for a good
purpose;
and fling it off at once! This feeble and most sensitive of spirits could do
neither...."
And so the minister continues to suffer
the tortures caused by his sense of sin and the persecution to which he is
subjected by Chillingworth till he meets Hester in the forest. And then this
man, who should long ago have confessed his sin, has his second fall". The
enchantment of Hester's presence and her words prove too strong for this man of
weak resolutions and, without putting up the least resistance, he accepts
Hester's plan of flight from Boston. However, soon afterwards the conflict
begins again, this time between
his
desire to start a new life in the company of Hester and the voice of his conscience
urging him to make a public confession of his sin. This conflict, agonising and
heart-rending as it must have been, is not described by Hawthorne. We only
learn that Dimmesdale's moral sense wins, that he becomes truly penitent, and
that he achieves a re-union with the good which enables him to write the Election
Sermon, to confess his sin publicly, and to come at the end into a true
relation with all the elements against which he has sinned.
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