Scarlet Letter Final Essay— A Reverential Man

A Reverential Man

A reverential person possesses kindness, pureness, and definitely is a good person. But it doesn’t mean that they are a person without shortcoming, they are a person who never makes any mistakes and never commit any sin, because they have emotion, like what we have, too. In the book The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Dimmesdale, a reverence Puritan minister who fell in love with Hester Prynne, committed a sin that he, as a reverential man, should never reveal, or even commit. Although he did commit this sin, it does not mean that he is an evil, a figure of corruption, he is still a good person, possessing kindness, pureness, and revere by townspeople and moreover, who can feel guilty, and possess what the most people don’t possess in that time period: emotion, or love, which means that he is a figure of love.

Dimmesdale is a good person that the townspeople revere. He worked hard and doing good things for the townspeople, as Hester said that “you work good among the townspeople,” (Hawthorne 175) and the townspeople think that he is “the saint on the earth, the godly youth.” (Hawthorne 130). The townspeople think he is the saint on the earth because he is doing good things to the townspeople, therefore the townspeople think that he is so good, so kind, so pure, like a god that is also pure, kind, good, and doing good things, loving the people who love him. This is why they revere him, thinking that Dimmesdale is the saint, and this also reflects that Dimmesdale is a good person, not an evil person that born to do the bad things.

Dimmesdale is a good person, with love in his heart all the time, so that is why he are willing to protect his lover, Hester Prynne when she needs. When Hester are asked to give her child, Pearl, her only world, she tries to argue that the God gives this child to her. But Governor Bellingham says that the child is pure, so it is impossible that Pearl is your child. When Hester is almost failed arguing with the governor and her child will be taken, the minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, stand out and argue that “God gave her the child, and gave her, too, an instinctive knowledge of its nature and requirements,-both seemingly so peculiar,—- which no other can possess. (Hawthorne 102) Dimmesdale is arguing that the God gave Hester the child and also gave her the knowledge to manage the child, to teach the child, so there’s no reason you should take the child away from Hester. This gives Hester enough reason to keeps her child, because of the minister, who can talk with God, said that God gives the child to her. After then, Governor Bellingham stopped trying to take the child away from Hester. He helps Hester is all because he wants to help her lover stay away from being taken away her only world. He saved Hester’s only world.

Although Dimmesdale is a good person, who possess love, kindness, and pureness, he is also a sinner, as he is worrying that “the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast.”(Hawthorne 134) The scarlet token represents the sin, he is a sinner, and he is trying to hide it; the sin is a barrier in his heart that can not pass through as he is worrying every day, because he is a good person, he can realize that he committed the sin, and trying to hide it. If he is an evil person, he will never realize the sin because the evil person is born to destroy, to do bad things, to break rules, to commit sins. They also don’t hide what they have done because they are redeeming their value as an evil person. Also in the later scene, he finally reveals the sin, as he did what he withheld himself from doing seven years ago, which is reveal the heavy sin.(Hawthorne 231) He can not hide the sin anymore, his conscience, his good quality, can not allow him to hide sin anymore, or he will destroy himself by the sin, because he is born as a good man, not an evil man that do bad things every day and don’t even feel sinned.

Unfortunately, Arthur Dimmesdale, a sinner, but more of a good person, died because he hides his sin for so long that the guilt he feels destroyed him. Even though he died, because the sin, he is still a good person, who is revered by the townspeople, doing good things to townspeople, who has love in his heart, who can feel the guilt, not an evil person that is born to destroy, to do bad things, to break rules, to commit sins.