Miranda: English II, Section F

[ I am sorry that I am posting this blog one day late, it is Sunday, and all blogs for the week should have been posted yesterday (Saturday)]

Thesis: Dimmesdale transforms from being a passionate, prominent man in society, who is venerated by the community, to a more conservative man who lives in isolation from the community and lacks the courage to confront his own sin.  In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, the characters are set in a strict, law-governed Puritan society and many characters are affected by the communal pressure to conform which is evident in the community through its strict rules and the very specific assumptions it has about each of the members of the community and the role that they should play in the community as a whole. Several characters within the story display dramatic changes in their identities as a result of the communal pressure to conform that is present in their society. Arthur Dimmesdale exhibits a prime example of this: Dimmesdale transforms from being a passionate, prominent man in society, who is venerated by the community, to a more conservative man who lives in isolation from the community and lacks the courage to confront his own sin. Throughout the course of the story, the communal pressure to conform, which is evident in the guilt that Dimmesdale has about committing adultery with Hester, causes Dimmesdale to feel the pressures of society on his role as a minister. As a minister, Dimmesdale is expected to be the epitome of purity, and therefore, is expected to be free of sin. Because of his sin with Hester, he feels guilty as a result of the communal pressure to conform, which is evident in the guilt that he feels about committing this sin and defying the role he is expected to play in society. Dimmesdale displays the hardships of carrying around sin, especially as a minister, and he feels so guilty about his sin that he attempts to purify himself through mental and emotional torture. This torture, in addition to the fact that he becomes sick as a result of his guilt, causes him to have a transformation through the course of the story. However, the cause of his torture, suffering, and sickness is the communal pressure to conform, which causes the guilt that he feels about committing adultery with Hester. 

Body Paragraph # 1: loses passion Throughout the course of the book, Dimmesdale loses the sense of passion that he was known for at the beginning of the story. This is reflected not only in Dimmesdale’s physical appearance, as a result of his sickness, but also in the way that he displays maturity in the way that he looks to the future, to predict the results of his actions. At the beginning of the story, in fact, even before the book begins, Dimmesdale commits adultery with Hester, which is described as an act of ______________________________________________________(quotation) [Love and Passion] that occurred in the moment. However, as the story progresses, Dimmesdale displays a loss of the passion that he once possessed in the fact that he decides not to confess to the community that he committed adultery with Hester, for fear of what might happen as a result of his confession. Dimmesdale is essentially the base of the community, as a minister, and he is expected to uphold all of the Puritan religious values, and especially stay free from sin. His act of sin with Hester was something that he probably was able to predict the consequences of, but he was caught up in the moment and unable to make a decision based on the consequences he foresaw. His development as a character is evident in the way that later on in the story, when confronted with the decision of whether or not to reveal to the community that he was, in fact, the man who committed adultery with Hester, he decides not to tell the community because he predicts the consequences and makes his decision based on that. Dimmesdale is suffering from guilt because of the sin that he committed (which is a result of the communal pressure to conform) and this causes Dimmesdale to change because he becomes more careful and conservative about his actions and the decisions that he makes because of what he feels as a result of his “mistake” of not making a decision based on what he saw as the consequences when he committed adultery with Hester. It could also be argued that Dimmesdale loses passion as a result of the fact that he lives in self-imposed isolation (because of the guilt he feels), which causes him to be more confined in his thinking and actions and makes it less likely for him to be passionate, and more likely for him to behave in a more conserved manner. 

Body Paragraph # 2: becomes weaker, loses courage  

Dimmesdale exhibits a change in his level of confidence and he becomes weaker, physically, as well as mentally and emotionally, as the story progresses, in addition to the fact that he is incapable of admitting to his sin. In the beginning of the story, Dimmesdale exhibits great courage, although he hesitates at first, by preaching to Hester in front of crowds of people, and telling her to reveal the name of the man who she committed adultery with, which is, ironically, him. However, even though Dimmesdale displays great courage in preaching to Hester about a matter that is so important to him and may have an affect on whether Dimmesdale lives or dies, he also displays a lack of courage in revealing to Hester that he “hath not the courage to grasp it for himself”, in reference to the opportunity to reveal his own name to the community as the man who committed adultery with her (60). Dimmesdale exhibits, perhaps, the most ideal example of lacking courage with the fact that he cannot admit to his own sin. Dimmesdale understands the fact that the community, as well as all of the values that it is built on, will crumble and fall apart if he confesses to the community that he was the man who committed adultery with Hester. For this reason, Dimmesdale is incapable of mustering up the courage to tell the community, and this is part of the reason for the fact that he feels obligated to perform midnight vigils that he is prone to, during which he deals with the “constant introspection wherewith he tortured, but could not purify, himself” (131). These midnight vigils allow Dimmesdale to punish himself internally, by making him conjure up images from his past and torture himself mentally and emotionally. Dimmesdale, thus, makes himself weaker mentally and emotionally by breaking himself down and criticizing himself with each of these so-called “midnight vigils”. Therefore, as a result of the communal pressure to conform, which is manifested in the guilt that Dimmesdale feels about committing adultery with Hester, Dimmesdale becomes weaker and he loses courage, not only physically, because of his sickness, but also mentally and emotionally.

Body Paragraph # 3: becomes more conservative, lives in isolation

Throughout the course of the story, Dimmesdale becomes more and more conservative as an individual, which is mainly a result of his self-imposed isolation from the community and the “midnight vigils” that he perform on a regular basis. Dimmesdale chooses to isolate himself from the community because he feels guilty about the fact that he is not living up to the communities expectations of him as a minister, and therefore, he tries to hide from the community and live in seclusion because he is almost disgusted with himself for what he has done and the fact that he is unable to admit to his sin. At the beginning of the story, it is evident that Chillingworth holds a more prominent role in society than later in the story, because he sits up on a balcony with the political figures and other important or prestigious members of the community. Although at the end of the story, Dimmesdale does participate in the parade for the new government, as a prominent man in society, he imposes isolation on himself, even though he acts prominent in society for the people of the town to see. It is almost as if Dimmesdale is lying to them because who he appears to be on the outside, a figure representing purity and religious beliefs, and a prominent man in society, when, really, Dimmesdale imposes isolation upon himself in order to hide from the community and postpone confessing to the community that he committed a sin. Dimmesdale is aware that he is hiding from the community and displaying a lack of courage to confront his sin, and he punishes himself with midnight vigils that seek to purify him, but they only make him weaker mentally and emotionally. Therefore, although Dimmesdale tries to develop ways to deal with his guilt, he is somewhat aware that the only time he will be able to come to terms with the society, is if he openly confesses to the community. He is very reluctant to do this, for fear of what will happen to him, as well as the community, as a result, and therefore, he imposes isolation on himself, to hide from the community and attempt to purify himself, but the reality is that, it only makes him mentally and emotionally weaker, which makes him more fragile.

Conclusion:

The fundamental idea of the affect of the communal pressure to conform on Dimmesdale’s identity, is the fact that, if the community and its strongly enforced rules and values, did not bind over Dimmesdale, he would not have felt the guilt that he did about committing adultery with Hester. Therefore, the guilt that he feels is a result of the communal pressure to conform in his Puritan society, which means that the results of Dimmesdale’s guilt, which include his sickness, his “midnight vigils”, his isolation from the community, and his transformation of society, are all extensions of the communal pressure to conform of the society that he lives in. Having said that, Dimmesdale transforms in three main ways as a result of the communal pressure to conform. He becomes less passionate and more cautious and conservative that he used to be, he becomes weaker and loses boldness and courage, and he holds less of a role in society and live more in isolation, which makes him more conservative.