Dimmesdale, a Fallen Angel

Whether it is fair or not, a habitual criminal is more likely to be forgiven when he does a good thing, while a good man is intolerable to make even one mistake. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character, Reverend Author Dimmesdale, is often criticized by readers that he makes a mistake and commits adultery with a woman named Hester Prynne. Dimmesdale is a fallen angel in the man’s world. As a clergyman from Oxford University, he gained high eminence and reputation among the public with his ‘eloquence’ and ‘religious fervor’. He is a good man, like an ‘heaven-ordained apostle’, to spread all his learnings in the new world. On the other hand, as an ordinary human being, he doesn’t restrain his desire of love; he also hides his secret sin for seven years until he finally confesses to the public. Even though Dimmesdale’s behavior is false and coward, he is a good man with courage and sense of responsibility in his personality that he finally redeems himself in his confession.

Frankly speaking, what Dimmesdale has done seems to be hypocritical and weak. When Hester is being exposed to the public on the scaffold for her sin, Dimmesdale doesn’t commit his sin to the public; he pretends to be innocent and makes Hester tell the truth. He says: “Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him. What can silence do for him, except it tempts him to add hypocrisy to sin” (Hawthorne 60)? Although Dimmesdale insincerely asks Hester to tell the truth, he doesn’t want his adultery to be exposed at that time, and he knows exactly that Hester will not admit. However, instead of showing his hypocrisy, what Dimmesdale said reveals his ambivalent thoughts and struggle in his mind. As a respectable clergyman, the education he had merely teaches him how to earn reputation from the public; no one tells him how to face the true life or mistake. He is like a panicky angel who has never experienced human’s life before. His wings are too weak to escape the burden on his soul, and thus he looks for Hester’s help. Indeed, he doesn’t want to be hypocritical; he suffered in the torment on his mind; he struggled with his sin; he fought against his false behaviors. He had actually spoken to the public for more than one hundred times: “I, your pastor, whom you so reverence and trust, am utterly a pollution and a lie” (Hawthorne 130). Nevertheless, his hearer heard it all and did but reverence him more. Others cannot believe he is a man with corruption and evil because Dimmesdale is a good man, an extraordinary man. No one in the world has discernment on the sin like him. He is a brave man who never stops confesses.

Dimmesdale is a man with courage throughout his whole life. Under the gloomy phenomenon and strict rules of Puritans, he had courage in pursuit of happiness and love, even though he disobeys moral principles. As soon as he realized that he had committed adultery, he begins his secret self-blame; the scarlet letter “A” on his bosom is the presence. The narrator explained how the scarlet letter imprinted in the flesh: “On the very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had begun a course of penance-which he afterwards, in so many futile methods, followed out, – by inflicting a hideous torture on himself” (Hawthorne 236). Dimmesdale’s confession begins with the torture on his body. He whips himself every day to make a scar; who can query that it doesn’t need courage? Dimmesdale suffered in the torment on the body, he also resisted in the mental persecution from Chillingworth. When Dimmesdale hears that Chillingworth was Hester’s former husband, he is afraid at first but then takes his courage and goes back to his house. He says: “I thank you from my heart, most watchful friend. I thank you, and can but requite your good deeds with my prayers” (Hawthorne 205). Chillingworth is Dimmesdale’s enemy and has overwhelming power over him. However, in Dimmesdale’s tone, there is irony. How brave Dimmesdale is to satirize Chillingworth under the risk of infuriating him! In the profound, lonely and painful confession, Dimmesdale is not only a good man with the courage to confess, he has courage to take responsibility for his duty.

Dimmesdale has dual identities. He is a reverend clergyman overseeing the spread of religious thoughts; meanwhile, he is also a father. As a pastor, he doesn’t leave his parishioner. In his confession, his health condition is gradually deteriorating. However, with a strong sense of mission, he still goes to a sick-chamber to make a prayer. As a father of Pearl, the outcome of his sin, he takes his responsibility and prevents Pearl from being taken away. The narrator described how Dimmesdale persuades the governor as: “This child of its father’s guilt and its mother’s shame hath from the hand of God, to work in many ways upon her heart, who pleads so earnestly, and with such bitterness of spirit, the right to keep her” (Hawthorne 102). He uses his wisdom that describes Pearl as a product from the God to make the persuasion convincible. Dimmesdale does the best to do his duty as a father. His sense of responsibility helps him to confess and makes him a good man.

To err is human, to confess is an angel. As a fallen angel confessing in the man’s world, Dimmesdale’s courage and sense of responsibility make him a good man. When he takes courage and responsibility to stand on the scaffold, he is redeemed: “God’s eye beheld it! The angels were forever pointing at it! The Devil knew it well, and fretted it continually with the touch of his burning finger” (Hawthorne 233). Dimmesdale is a good man. His redemption of death repairs his angel’s wings that he finally flies into the heaven!