Scarlet Letter Essay Rough Draft
Here is the Rough Draft of my Scarlet Letter Essay…I am posting it just to back it up and make sure that I have a copy of it…
Dimmesdale’s Transformation: Body and Soul In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, the characters are set in a strict, law-governed Puritan society. Many characters are affected by the communal pressure to conform to this society, which is evident in the community through its strict rules and very specific assumptions about each member 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, sickness, and guilt about committing adultery with Hester and defying his role in the community, all comes down to the communal pressure to conform, which is the ultimate cause of Dimmesdale’s transformation. 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 the way that “every successive Sabbath, his cheek [grows] paler and thinner, and his voice more tremulous than before”, but also 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 “sinful passion” and love that occurred in the moment (71). 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 is, 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 what he foresees. 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’s identity to change because he becomes more careful and conservative about his actions and the decisions that he makes. Based on the consequences of committing adultery with Hester, which are caused by the communal pressure to conform, Dimmesdale learns his lesson about not weighing the consequences before he acts. Therefore, he learns to predict the consequences of his action and make decisions based on his perception of the consequences.
Dimmesdale exhibits a change in his level of confidence throughout the story, and he becomes weaker, physically, as well as mentally and emotionally, as the story progresses, which is evident in the fact that he does not have the courage to admit 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 the “midnight vigils” that he is prone to, during which he goes through 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 “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 through the “midnight vigils” that he performs.
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 community’s expectations for 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 Dimmesdale 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 prestigious members of the community during the first part of Hester’s ignominy. Although at the end of the story, Dimmesdale does participate in the parade for the new governor as a prominent man in society, he imposes isolation on himself, in order to deal with his guilt, but he deceives the community, by displaying on the outside that he is prominent in society. Dimmesdale’s motives for hiding who he is on the inside, a man living in isolation and punishing himself on a regular basis, are to hide from the community and its constant pressures about who he should be in society, and also, he hides his true self in order to postpone telling the community about his sin. The reality of the situation is that Dimmesdale wears the pretends to be who everyone thinks he is, a figure representing purity and religious beliefs, and a prominent man in society, when, really, Dimmesdale is very different from what he portrays on the outside. 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 break him down and 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.
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 have felt little or no guilt 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. Dimmesdale goes through a very complicated transformation, in that, after he meets with Hester in the woods, until the time that he stops in the governor’s parade, he displays a sense of pride and strength that has not been seen in him for about 7 years. Although this seems to contradict the argument for the fact that Dimmesdale becomes weaker and loses strength, much of his pride and joy is a result of him “putting on a show” for the community, and this minor transformation also takes place because Dimmesdale looks forward to telling the community who he really is, and ending his suffering, which he plans to do once he reaches the scaffold. This minor transformation passes very quickly after Dimmesdale stops in the parade, when he regains his physical weakness, and needs Hester and Pearl to support him. Therefore, because this is a short and minor transformation, the overall transformation that takes place with Dimmesdale holds true, except for the fact that Dimmesdale is able to confess his sin to the community. However, this is also more complicated than it seems, because Dimmesdale never says plainly to his listeners that he committed adultery with Hester, instead he refers to himself as “he”, and he says everything in a very indirect manner. Hawthorne also makes it very clear that Dimmesdale must fight “back the bodily weakness,–and still more, the faintness of heart that was striving for mastery with him” (233). This quote reveals that Dimmesdale is forced to fight back his own lack of courage and physical weakness in order to continue with his confession to the community. This displays that Dimmesdale shows a weakness and lack of courage, that he is forced to fight back, until only a few minutes before his death. Therefore, the fact that Dimmesdale loses passion, courage, and his role in the community, throughout the book, holds true until the very end of the story.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Random House, 2000.
