Scarlet Letter Term Paper

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Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter is secrecy. Each of the book's central characters: Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale, possess a secret related to his or her identity. Hester hides the truth behind her adulterous affair and shrouds the identity of Pearl's father. However, Hester lives with public scorn, as she has to wear the titular scarlet letter on her breast. Hester's husband Chillingworth directly hides his identity; only Hester knows the truth about the vengeful doctor. While both Hester and Chillingworth keep their secrets mainly hidden from the public, they nevertheless live much as they would like, within the confines of their secrets. For instance, Hester pursues her embroidery and charity work and humbly accepts her fate. Chillingworth dedicates his new life in America to both being a doctor and to exacting revenge on Hester and her lover. On the other hand, Dimmesdale does not wear his secret well and despite his eloquence and gift for sermons, he does not live true to his heart. Dimmesdale thus proves to be the character that lives for appearances, rather than for reality, as he ascribes to societal expectations over the dictates of his own heart.

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As a minister, Arthur Dimmesdale feels especially restricted the Puritan culture in which he lives. Unfortunately, the otherwise good man is made into a hypocrite over his fears of revealing the truth of his affair with Hester. Early in the story, in Chapter Three he speaks to Hester in front of a crowd of people, urging her to reveal the identity of Pearl's father. Ironically, he is begging her to reveal that which both he and Hester struggle to keep secret. Foreshadowing later events and hinting at his own culpability, Dimmesdale tells Hester, "though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life." (8th paragraph from the end). Dimmesdale shows one face to the public and to Hester and another face to himself. Tortured by shame and guilt, Dimmesdale….....

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