Two Different Lives
Review by Rebecca Bingaman
“The Scarlet Letter” is a story about two lovers who face the world in their own different ways and how their actions affect the condition of their hearts. Everyone responds to punishment and judgment differently, and such is the case with Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. While both have caring, passionate hearts, the difference between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale in the way they react when faced with punishment for their sin is quite different. Hester faces the world with strength, loyalty, and generosity; Arthur becomes a coward and a hypocrite while struggling alone with his guilt.
The main characteristics one observes in Hester Prynne from the very beginning of the story are loyalty and selflessness. When asked to reveal the father of her child in exchange for cutting her sentence short and removing the scarlet letter, she replies, “Never!...And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!” (Hawthorne 55). She is willing to serve the punishment of two people rather than give the name of her partner in crime. Mr. Dimmesdale, astonished by Hester’s stubbornness, replies in awe, “Wondrous strength and generosity of a woman’s heart! She will not speak!” (Hawthorne 55). Hester sees no reason for another to suffer the sorrow that she has endured. She is already paying the price for her crime and sees no sense in making another suffer as well. She serves her sentence alone, but without regret.
By this choice of being punished alone, she is choosing to live her life alone as well. Although she contributes to society, making a living with her talent for needlework, and helping others by using this same skill, she does not fit in to, or have a place in this society. The townspeople avoid eye contact whenever she passes by. They give her dirty looks and talk about her behind her back. However, she shows self-control by never responding to these actions (Hawthorne 68). Instead of becoming bitter, Hester develops a sort of sympathy for these people who have disowned her, because she knows the letter is only a symbol that they fear. She finds solace in the fact that “if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides Hester Prynne’s” (Hawthorne 69). The people avoid Hester because they are afraid of the truth the scarlet letter symbolizes; it reveals to themselves their own sins and weaknesses. It is this truth that gives Hester the motivation to continue on with being a kind and generous soul, serving her punishment with pride and dignity.
The other guilty party of the story, Arthur Dimmesdale, does not show this same kind of heroic behavior. He hides his guilt, fearful of what it would mean for him if the truth came out. As a minister, he would most certainly be judged more harshly than anyone else for his sin because he is held to a higher standard than ordinary people. He lets this fear ruin him as he guiltily watches Hester serve her punishment day after day. In front of others, he asks Hester to reveal her “fellow-sinner and fellow-suffer” (Hawthorne 54) while he secretly hopes she does not speak his name. He lives a life of hypocrisy, preaching of confession and forgiveness, while living the opposite.
The torture of watching another pay for a sin that he, too, should be paying for is too much for him to bear. His physical body grows weak and sick due to this “black trouble of the soul” (Hawthorne 111). He longs to confess and be rid of his burden, but his fear of consequences is too great to allow him to do this. His guilt builds up inside of him and eats away at him, aging his body and his soul more than time ever could. Eventually, he realizes he is a dying man and it is only a matter of time before he leaves this mortal realm. Knowing this, he decides to finally confess his sin, after all of these years, so he can finally be free of his burden before he goes to meet his Maker. After years of suffering in silence and secret, it is only when he knows he will not have to face anyone’s judgment but his Heavenly Father’s that he finds the courage to speak of his sin - a cowardly end to a cowardly life.
The difference between the two sinners is astounding. While both suffer long and hard for their sin, Hester chooses to take responsibility for her actions and faces the world bravely with evidence of her deeds visible for everyone to see and judge. Arthur Dimmesdale chooses to live a life of fear and keeps his sin hidden from the world. It is clear who comes out the better person at the end and who makes a better life for themselves. “Hester Prynne had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment” (Hawthorne 204). Mr. Dimmesdale keeps his secret for selfish reasons: to avoid punishment and judgment from his congregation and his peers. Hester becomes respected and well-loved for her decision to face the consequences of her sins; Dimmesdale is destroyed from the inside out by his guilt.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
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