The Transformation Of The Rev Dimmesdal Essay

The Transformation Of The Rev. Dimmesdal Essay, Research Paper

The Transformation of the Reverend Master Dimmesdale

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a classic novel that

tells the story of two adulterers, except in this account, only one is

punished publicly. The other, although just as guilty, is not exposed and

therefore remains held in high esteem by the public eye. As the

unknown guilty party, the Reverend Dimmesdale not only becomes a

hypocrite, but on the inside, he is torn apart. As Dimmesdale becomes

more and more distraught over his position as the story progresses, his

health and mental stability begin to decline. A study of the character of

the Reverend Master Dimmesdale throughout The Scarlet Letter will

reveal the transformation of his physical being and mental state of mind

from an honorable, reputable, and nice looking young preacher to a

decrepit, deteriorated, and opprobrious clergyman who had fallen from

righteousness but returned to righteousness in the end.

When Dimmesdale is first introduced, he is shown as a model of

virtue. The responsibility of the adulteress’ soul “lies greatly within”

Dimmesdale and Governor Bellingham appeals to him “to exhort her

repentance, and to confession, as a proof and consequence thereof”(67).

This is ironic in that Dimmesdale’s responsibility to Hester Prynne is

twofold: as “her godly pastor”(53) and as the unknown partner and

father to the child. The minister pleads with the adulteress to disclose

the adulterer, lest her partner “add hypocrisy to sin”(68), which is

another irony because he is adding the sin unto himself. That the

parson is condemning himself remains unseen by the people, thus his

status as a godly minister remains intact.

Dimmesdale does not appear again until Chapter 8. Here, Hester

has come to the mansion to appeal to the Governor, that he not take the

child, Pearl. Dimmesdale is with Governor Bellingham as well as

Reverend Wilson and Roger Chillingworth at the house. The author says

that Dimmesdale is “in close companionship with Chillingworth, a person

of great skill in physic…[and his] physician as well as friend of the young

minister.”(108) The writer tells us that Dimmesdale’s health “had

suffered severely, of late, by his too unreserved self-sacrifice to the labors

and duties of the pastoral relation.”(108) Chance or necessity functions

to make Arthur Dimmesdale Chillingworth’s patient, since the young

minister is decreasing in health, and since Chillingworth’s scientific

aspirations make him a qualified physician. Chillingworth’s ambiguous

standing, in comparison with the clergyman’s pious reputation, inspires

the congregation to believe that their godly champion is struggling

against a fiendish agent. There are two ironic facts here. One is that

Dimmesdale has in fact wronged Chillingworth and the other is that the

people’s “brave minister” is in fact warring his own conscience judging

“from the gloom and terror in the depths of the poor minister’s eyes, the

battle was a sore one, and the victory was any thing but secure!”(127)

But, in the eyes of the beholders, the congregation, Dimmesdale is still a

very righteous man.

As a doctor, Chillingworth senses that the source of Dimmesdale’s

illness is not physical but rather “a strange sympathy betwixt soul and

body.”(136) This results in Chillingworth pursuing his patient as the

adulterer, for earlier in the story, Chillingworth had met Hester, his

former wife, in the prison. Here he told her that he would seek out her

partner and that “he shall be mine.” As Chillingworth continues his

investigation, he remarks to Dimmesdale that some ugly weeds he found

growing on a gravesight might be because of “some hideous secret that

was buried with [the deceased], [that] he had done better to confess

during his lifetime,”(130) the leech was attempting to make Dimmesdale

break and confess. The minister does, for awhile, hold and Chillingworth

does not find anything but good in the heart of his patient. However,

Dimmesdale was “trusting no man as his friend…[and] could not

recognize his enemy when the latter actually appeared.”(129) Thus, at

the end of Chapter 10, the “leech” discovers Dimmesdale’s secret (”leech”

has a double meaning: (1). physicians were sometimes referred to as

leeches, and (2). leeches are creatures that suck blood from animals as

Chillingworth was “sucking” the truth from Dimmesdale). Today, one

might refer to Dimmesdale’s illness as psychosomatic, and see his

appointments with Chillingworth as sessions with a psychoanalyst. It is

in the these sessions that the leech probes through his patient’s mind

and eventually determines the truth: Dimmesdale is not the pious

clergyman as everyone thinks, but in fact a horrible sinner. Dimmesdale

has come to embody hypoc

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