The Scarlet Letter was first published by Nathaniel Hawthrone in 1850. The story is captivated by the introduction of the first images. The characters in this novel are based around silence and secrecy. Hester is a main character in the novel. She commits adultery and hides her accomplice’s name for years. Hester’s secrecy has a negative impact on her and those around her. Secrecy and silence have a big impact on people. The emotions they suppress are often bottled up and cause trouble. The story revolves around Hester’s adultery, a mystery. Nathaniel Hawthorne drew striking parallelisms between the secrets held from Salem citizens and their physical and mental condition. The Scarlet Letter shows how a secret, feeling or mystery that is held within gradually overcomes and crushes your spirit. Dimmesdale’s deception, for example.
Dimmesdale seems faithful to Salem’s people, but nobody knows the truth. Dimmsdale believes that the secret he’s hiding has a powerful power. In the first chapter of the book, readers learn about the colony Dimmesdale lives in with Chillingworth and Hester. The colony has a reputation for being full of unjust and cruel punishments. Hester’s punishment for adultery and conceiving her child is revealed, but the identity of her accomplice is not revealed for many years. Dimmesdale is unaware that he has the same child as Hester, Pearl. He chooses to keep quiet, despite knowing it. Dimmesdale is well aware of the humiliation he may face if he were to be punished in the same way as Hester and Pearl. However, he chooses to remain silent because his role as a minister and father figure is more important. Hester, Dimmesdale and their secrets have been held so long that they cause pain to themselves and others. Leland Person mentions in his article Hester’s Revenge: The Scarlet Letter’s Power of Silence that Hawthrone is experimenting with passive resistance and active political resistance. Person’s intention was to show how Hawthrone created suspense by incorporating secrecy and silence throughout the entire novel.
Hester’s silence is a strategy that she uses to hide the truth about Pearl’s Father from the townspeople. She does this to protect herself, the father, and her daughter. Person stated in Hester’s Revenge. The Power of Silence. The Scarlet Letter: “Hester’s Silence is an important strategy in forming the plot of The Scarlet Letter and determining the fate of other characters.” This statement helps readers to recognize what Hester intended by keeping this secret. Hester chose to keep the secret in order to protect the people who were important to her. She did not want the truth of what happened revealed. Hester refused to answer the question about her accomplice, as Dimsdale had asked her not to. Dimmsdale is concerned with maintaining his status as a minister of religion in the community. He’s described as weak and only concerned about himself.
Lauren Battista writes in Silence and Secrecy : Psychosomatics and Discussion in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter that Hester used silence to punish Chillingworth and Dimmesdale for their indiscretions and deviations. However, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale had already suffered greatly from their guilt without Hester being aware. Chillingworth’s and Dimmesdale’s guilt was constantly building over time. This caused both to suffer.
Dimmesdale is struggling to find the right words to describe his feelings towards Hester. The author Lauren Battista stated in the article Silence and Secrecy Psychosomatics and Dialogue in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter that Dimmesdale has an obsession to keep his secret and suppresses his true feelings toward Hester. By stating such, readers will be able to better understand Dimmesdale’s real feelings towards Hester and why it was forbidden love.
Hester, who cares for Dimmesdale Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, is humiliated on the scaffold in Salem and punished. She stays silent when questioned to protect them. As punishment, she is made to wear the scarlet A which stands for adultery. Hester’s strength and concern for Dimmesdale’s reputation is evident in the way she was humiliated and punished. Hester started out embarrassed, but she became more determined as time went on to live her life without caring about what others thought. Hester began to change her appearance in order to reflect her feelings. She started wearing more disguised clothes and shaved her hair. Hester wants to carry on as usual, so she sets up a new home at the edge town. She also takes on a sewing job and raises Pearl alone. Hester’s ability to remain strong and keep Pearl safe showed the readers her love for Pearl and her will to live.
Dimmesdale understands what he did and knows his mistakes, but has no intention of revealing himself. Dimmesdale’s sins are not forgotten by Hester, but dimmesdale actually tortures himself both mentally and physically. Dimmesdale punishes him-self because he truly feels guilty. Hester suffers and is humiliated, while Dimmesdale does not. Dimmesdale was relieved from his pain by wiping himself with a cloth to punish himself. It shows that Dimmesdale, who is initially portrayed as being self-centered, is actually affected by his daily life and feels he should be punished as well. Dimmesdale had an incredible sense of regret, but he did not have to admit his sin. He didn’t want to tell anyone about his sin, but he needed to clear his conscience by confessing to himself. Although he wants to clean his mind, he admits it.
Dimmesdale escapes blame for his sin by admitting that he sinned and remaining with Hester, Pearl and the other witnesses on the scaffold. Hawthorne has Dimmesdale show his chest on the third scene of the scaffold to make the point that the minister is blaming himself for the sin. Dimmesdale’s chest is shown to the audience, revealing the secret truth he had been keeping for so long, that he had committed adultery. Dimmesdale’s scars show that he has been aware of his mistakes for a long time and is finally coming out to admit his truths. Nathanial Hawthrone in The Scarlet Letter portrays the impact of silence and secrecy on a physical and mental person. Hester Dimmesdale finds herself in an awkward situation when she confesses to adultery. The reader can learn from their story how the secretiveness of a person affects them. Hawthorne urges viewers to avoid being put in these situations, as the consequences are often very painful.
