A Life Sentence in Cowardice: Arthur Dimmesdale's Secret Conflict
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, behavior is centered around a rigid
Puritan society that leads to great consequences in the lives of Hester Prynne and Arthur
Dimmesdale. Their act of adultery greatly effects their lives and its result greatly alters
their presence in the community. Hester handles her situation with as much dignity and
pride as possible while Dimmesdale, the minister, acts in a different and cowardly
manner. Hester openly confesses her sin and bears the punishment, while Dimmesdale
does not even contain the strength to confess and tolerate the results that could be thrust
upon him. Arthur Dimmesdale's inability to confess is strictly due to his fear of
confrontation thus characterizing him as a coward.
The fact that Dimmesdale does not publicly acknowledge or reveal his sin only
contributes in denouncing himself as well as his courage. His lack of a confession solely
results in the loss of power, self-esteem, and dignity. His great lack of inner strength is
easily grasped due to the lies he preaches every week for seven painful years about truth
and in the manner in which he avoids confrontation. He spreads the word of holiness and
goodness, yet he himself does not abide these simple laws of the Puritan lifestyle. The
minister can only extol Hester when she refuses to reveal him as the father by expressing
"the wondrous strength and generosity of a woman's heart!" (Hawthorne 69) rather than
confess his own half of the sin. He can only praise a woman who has more strength and
power than himself, for degrading her would be extremely hypocritical for a man in his
For seven years, Dimmesdale withers in his own cowardice while wearing a mask
of purity. By being the highly acclaimed preacher of his community, Dimmesdale feels it
is his duty to represent the model of a goo...