The Scaffold "Hadst thou sought the whole earth over," said he, looking darkly at the clergyman, "there was no one place so secret,--no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me,--save on this very scaffold!" "Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither!" answered the minister (219-220). This is part of the dialogue between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale while the latter was ascending the scaffold with Hester and Pearl. The scaffold was the only place that Dimmesdale could escape Chillingworth and gain salvation. Additionally, he had to ascend to get on the scaffold, continuing the theme of salvation. The scaffold is the resolution to Dimmesdale’s tale of woe. Hawthorne uses the scaffold to say that only confession can save a person. The series of events changes the scaffold from a place of damnation to a place of salvation. An opposite symbol to the scaffold is Dimmesdale’s habit of chuching at his chest, for it conceals his sin. Pearl is Hester’s equivalent of the scaffold. It is one of the many symbols in the book that is a blessing in disguise. Hawthorn is trying to say that one can not be saved if they keep in the guilt and pain of a sin.
The crowd was in a tumult. The men of rank and dignity, who stood more immediately around the clergyman, were so taken by surprise, and so perplexed as to the purport of what they saw,--unable to receive the explanation which most readily presented itself, or to imagine any other,--that they remained silent and inactive spectators of the judgment which Providence seemed about to work. They beheld the minister, leaning on Hester's shoulder and supported by her arm around him, approach the scaffold, and ascend its steps; while still the little hand of the sin-born child was clasped in his. Old Roger Chillingworth followed, as one intimately connected with the drama of guilt and sorrow in which they had all been actors, and well entitled, therefore, to be present at its closing scene.
"Hadst thou sought the whole earth over," said he, looking darkly at the clergyman, "there was no one place so secret,--no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me,--save on this very scaffold!"
"Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither!" answered the minister. (pg. 219-220)
This passage occurs when Dimmsdale, finished with his Election Day sermon, motions for Pearl and Hester to join him on the scaffold. Chillingsworth sees this and pursues them in order to cease the action for he knows that he will hold no power over Dimmsdale if his sin is released to the public.
The symbol in this passage, the scaffold, represents salvation by literally representing Dimmsdale releasing himself from the shackles of Chillingsworth's torture by openly repenting.
This symbol and theme fit themselves into the book's greater meaning by displaying the idea that penance and the knowledge of others are the supreme ways to free yourself from guilt and to achieve Salvation. The symbol is proven just by the novel's finale, for Dimmsdale immediately is freed from the torture he has succumbed to by keeping his sin hidden. The symbol's opposite seems to be Dimmsdale, who believes that he is doing a service by not publicizing his sin, until the end, where he ironically publicizes his sin. Hawthorne is trying to communicate with his audience and tell them that a contained sin is a predicament that must be solve by revealing such a deed to the world and have God judge you on that day instead of having evil torture you for the majority of the rest.
“True; there are such men,” answered Mr. Dimmesdale. “But, not to suggest more obvious reasons, it may be that they are kept silent by the very constitution of their nature. Or,—can we not suppose it?—guilty as they may be, retaining, nevertheless, a zeal for God's glory and man's welfare, they shrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view of men; because, thenceforward, no good can be achieved by them; no evil of the past be redeemed by better service. So, to their own unutterable torment, they go about among their fellow-creatures, looking pure as new-fallen snow; while their hearts are all speckled and spotted with iniquity of which they cannot rid themselves.”
“These men deceive themselves,” said Roger Chillingworth, with somewhat more emphasis than usual, and making a slight gesture with his forefinger. “They fear to take up the shame that rightfully belongs to them. Their love for man, their zeal for God's service,—these holy impulses may or may not coexist in their hearts with the evil inmates to which their guilt has unbarred the door, and which must needs propagate a hellish breed within them. But, if they seek to glorify God, let them not lift heavenward their unclean hands! If they would serve their fellow-men, let them do it by making manifest the power and reality of conscience, in constraining them to penitential self-abasement! Wouldst thou have me to believe, O wise and pious friend, that a false show can be better—can be more for God's glory, or man's welfare—than God's own truth? Trust me, such men deceive themselves!”
Dimmsdale commmited this sin, and has been living with the unrelenting guilt nonstop for the past three years. When Chillingsworth points out that the men who keep their sin a secret deceive themselves, he is urging Dimmsdale to come forth and confess what he has done. He continues to state the consequences that people endure when they hide things that are meant to be let out.
“Thou hast escaped me!” he repeated more than once. “Thou hast escaped me!”
Rodger Chillingsworth had complete control over Arthur Dimmsdale. He was taking the sin and guilt that Dimmsdale was being tortured with and made it so that it was even more painful for him. Chillingsworth wanted nothing more but for Dimmsdale to recieve the ultimate punishment... Dimmsdale ruined that authority and control that Chillingsworth had over him by revealing his secret. Or "escaping" him. Dimmsdale then blames Chillingsworth for sinning too..
“May God forgive thee!” said the minister. “Thou, too, hast deeply sinned!”
Then Dimmmsdale's attention shifted to Hester and Pearl, leaving Chillingsworth to soak in his very own guilt.
Pearl "Hist, hist!" said she, while her ill-omened physiognomy seemed to cast a shadow over the cheerful newness of the house. "Wilt thou go with us to-night? There will be a merry company in the forest; and I wellnigh promised the Black Man that comely Hester Prynne should make one." "Make my excuse to him, so please you!" answered Hester, with a triumphant smile. "I must tarry at home, and keep watch over my little Pearl. Had they taken her from me, I would willingly have gone with thee into the forest, and signed my name in the Black Man's book too, and that with mine own blood!" "We shall have thee there anon!" said the witch-lady, frowning, as she drew back her head. But here--if we suppose this interview betwixt Mistress Hibbins and Hester Prynne to be authentic, and not a parable--wasalready an illustration of the young minister's argument against sundering the relation of a fallen mother to the offspring of her frailty. Even thus early had the child saved her from Satan's snare (103). This quote follows magistrate Bellingham’s decision that Hester could keep Pearl. Pearl acts as Hester’s saving grace in this encounter with evil. She is the only thing that keeps Hester from joining the devil worshipers. This was one of those times that Pearl saves her mother from damnation. Hawthorne is showing that Pearl is the only thing on the earth that could keep her on a path of righteousness. Pearl changes from being a governer of Hester’s actions to a reward of sorts, because she has someone to love after all that had happened. Chillingworth is an opposite symbol to Pearl, for Dimmesdale, because he wants to lead him into the depths of hell. The scarlet letter is simular to Pearl in its attribute of showing Hester’s sin at every moment, not allowing her to become complacent with what she had done. Pearl relates to the symbols of sinfulness because she is the result of the sin of her parents, and of redemption, keeping Hester out of the path of evil. Hawthone is probably trying to say that good things can come from sinful origins.
"Hadst thou sought the whole world over," said Chillingworth to Dimmesdale,"there was no secret,-no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me,-save on this very scaffold!" "Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither!" answered the minister.
Chillingworth calls out to Dimmesdale that the only place that he could have escaped Chillingworth's torture was to tell the public of his sin and be punished for it.
This symbol is shown throughout the novel whenever a character is hiding the truth. The novels ends with all secrets revealed, where Dimmesdale is set free of his guilt and dies. The opposite of this symbol is Dimmesdale, who refuses to tell his sin for seven years. Hawthorne is trying to tell the reader that a sin confessed earlier will be more holy and less painful than a sin kept secret.
With a convulsive motion, he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast. It was revealed! But it were irreverent to describe that revelation. For an instant, the gaze of the horror-stricken multitude was concentrated on the ghastly miracle; while the minister stood, with a flush of triumph in his face, as one who, in the crisis of acutest pain, had won a victory. Then, down he sank upon the scaffold! Hester partly raised him, and supported his head against her bosom. Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him, with a blank, dull countenance, out of which the life seemed to have departed,
"Thou hast escaped me!" he repeated more than once. "Thou hast escaped me!"
"May God forgive thee!" said the minister. "Thou, too, hast deeply sinned!"
He withdrew his dying eyes from the old man, and fixed them on the woman and the child.
"Hester," said the clergyman, "farewell!"
"Hush, Hester--hush!" said he, with tremulous solemnity. "The law we broke I--the sin here awfully revealed!--let these alone be in thy thoughts! I fear! I fear! It may be, that, when we forgot our God--when we violated our reverence each for the other's soul--it was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an everlasting and pure reunion. God knows; and He is merciful! He hath proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man, to keep the torture always at red-heat! By bringing me hither, to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people! Had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost for ever! Praised be His name! His will be done! Farewell!"
The two main symbols in this passage are Dimmesdale's dying words and what he tore off from his breast. This is the final scene with Dimmesdale when he slowy dies in front of the whole town. He has just admitted his sin and asks for God's forgiveness, not only for his crime, but also for the way he has handled the situation. He has been living a lie and he seems almost happy dying because he is dying peacfully.
Dimmesdale's dying words represent the emotion everyone feels when they keep a secret. This symbol is very important because this happens to most people in everyday life and it sometimes destroys their life, just like Dimmesdale. Secondly, Dimmesdale tore off his own "scarlet letter" to reveal who he truly is to the entire town. This is a major scene in this novel because it is the first time we see Dimmesdale without a burden on his chest, (literally), and it is the first time we see him just as Reverend Dimmesdale, no strings attached. This is almost like a breath of fresh air because Hawthorne is trying to show the reader that IT IS possible to be happy again after a sin like this, even if that happiness comes from dying a peaceful death. The way this book ends ultimately shows just how big a deal this sin was back then. As we can see, the consequence of adultery just might have an ironic twist to it: having a good life with God in Heaven you want to, even if it means dying to get that peaceful place in your life. A similar symbol in this novel was when Hester throws off her scarlet letter. She feels salvation because she feels that it will make her fell free and come closer to living a happier life with God. The theme of salvation is throughout this entire novel and it relates to many different symbols. But ultimately Hawthorne is trying to tell the reader that "grace and salvation" come along with consequences and sacrifices. To get to this happy part of your life, you have to work hard for it and not expect it to just go away.
"Hester Prynne," said he, leaning over the balcony, and looking down steadfastly into her eyes, "thou hearest what this good man says, and seest the accountability under which I labor. If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin? Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph over the evil within thee, and the sorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him--who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself--the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips!"
This is the scene at the very beginning of the novel where Dimmesdale is calling out to Hester to reveal the husband so that she may have some chance at grace by confessing her sin and the co-sinner. This represents the fact that Dimmesdale himself put on a show for the people making them believe he wanted to know the co-sinner, even though it was he, yet he did not want Hester to actually reveal him. So while Hester was supposedly given the opportunity at grace, Dimmesdale did not want her to take it. Hawthorne uses this to show yet even more corruption in today's society; the high leaders and people we idolize seem to make the giant mistakes they preach to us not to make: such hipocracy. Towards the end of the novel, when Dimmesdale finally confesses his sin of adultery, he is given that chance at salvation; without a confession, grace would not have been possible. The only counterpart symbol would be Hester's side of the whole scandal. The symbol of Grace/Salvation itselt can be directly related to the symbol of Guilt/Sin. Both of these correlate through ones mental aspect of life and then can both affect one's religious life. This theme is really the main theme of the novel; how can we get passed all of the corruption in order to obtain the grace and salvation that we all desire?
He turned towards the scaffold, and stretched forth his arms. “Hester,” said he, “come hither! Come, my little Pearl!” “Hadst thou sought the whole earth over,” said he, looking darkly at the clergyman, “there was no one place so secret,—no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me,—save on this very scaffold!”
Dimmesdale has kept the secret of his sin until now. He has been torturing himself because of his guilt. Hester has been cast out by society for the same thing that he did. Chillingsworth, Hester’s husband, wants to seek revenge. He has been trying to get Dimmesdale to confess, and he is making Dimmesdale miserable. Hester and Dimmesdale had planned to leave after his election sermon. Once he is done with his sermon, he tells Hester and Pearl to come to him. He confesses his sin, and he was now free from Chillingsworth’s wrath.
The scaffold represents redemption and truth. Dimmesdale is able to confess his sin after lying for seven years. He has been torturing himself, so by confessing, he feels God’s grace again. The greater message that is seen in this passage is that hiding a huge secret ruins your life. It is better to repent and let your secret be known. Hawthorne is trying to communicate that the way to repent for a sin as big as adultery, especially when the adulterer is a preacher, the only way to get rid of the guilt is to come clean in front of the people you have lied to. Dimmesdale dies right after he repents on the scaffold, so he died without the terrible guilt that he had for seven years. The counterpart to the scaffold is the scaffold itself. Earlier in the book, the scaffold was a place of punishment and judgment. This was seen when Hester was persecuted on the scaffold.
The Scaffold
ReplyDelete"Hadst thou sought the whole earth over," said he, looking darkly at the clergyman, "there was no one place so secret,--no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me,--save on this very scaffold!"
"Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither!" answered the minister (219-220).
This is part of the dialogue between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale while the latter was ascending the scaffold with Hester and Pearl.
The scaffold was the only place that Dimmesdale could escape Chillingworth and gain salvation. Additionally, he had to ascend to get on the scaffold, continuing the theme of salvation.
The scaffold is the resolution to Dimmesdale’s tale of woe. Hawthorne uses the scaffold to say that only confession can save a person. The series of events changes the scaffold from a place of damnation to a place of salvation. An opposite symbol to the scaffold is Dimmesdale’s habit of chuching at his chest, for it conceals his sin. Pearl is Hester’s equivalent of the scaffold. It is one of the many symbols in the book that is a blessing in disguise. Hawthorn is trying to say that one can not be saved if they keep in the guilt and pain of a sin.
The crowd was in a tumult. The men of rank and dignity, who stood more immediately around the clergyman, were so taken by surprise, and so perplexed as to the purport of what they saw,--unable to receive the explanation which most readily presented itself, or to imagine any other,--that they remained silent and inactive spectators of the judgment which Providence seemed about to work. They beheld the minister, leaning on Hester's shoulder and supported by her arm around him, approach the scaffold, and ascend its steps; while still the little hand of the sin-born child was clasped in his. Old Roger Chillingworth followed, as one intimately connected with the drama of guilt and sorrow in which they had all been actors, and well entitled, therefore, to be present at its closing scene.
ReplyDelete"Hadst thou sought the whole earth over," said he, looking darkly at the clergyman, "there was no one place so secret,--no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me,--save on this very scaffold!"
"Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither!" answered the minister.
(pg. 219-220)
This passage occurs when Dimmsdale, finished with his Election Day sermon, motions for Pearl and Hester to join him on the scaffold. Chillingsworth sees this and pursues them in order to cease the action for he knows that he will hold no power over Dimmsdale if his sin is released to the public.
The symbol in this passage, the scaffold, represents salvation by literally representing Dimmsdale releasing himself from the shackles of Chillingsworth's torture by openly repenting.
This symbol and theme fit themselves into the book's greater meaning by displaying the idea that penance and the knowledge of others are the supreme ways to free yourself from guilt and to achieve Salvation. The symbol is proven just by the novel's finale, for Dimmsdale immediately is freed from the torture he has succumbed to by keeping his sin hidden. The symbol's opposite seems to be Dimmsdale, who believes that he is doing a service by not publicizing his sin, until the end, where he ironically publicizes his sin. Hawthorne is trying to communicate with his audience and tell them that a contained sin is a predicament that must be solve by revealing such a deed to the world and have God judge you on that day instead of having evil torture you for the majority of the rest.
“True; there are such men,” answered Mr. Dimmesdale. “But, not to suggest more obvious reasons, it may be that they are kept silent by the very constitution of their nature. Or,—can we not suppose it?—guilty as they may be, retaining, nevertheless, a zeal for God's glory and man's welfare, they shrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view of men; because, thenceforward, no good can be achieved by them; no evil of the past be redeemed by better service. So, to their own unutterable torment, they go about among their fellow-creatures, looking pure as new-fallen snow; while their hearts are all speckled and spotted with iniquity of which they cannot rid themselves.”
ReplyDelete“These men deceive themselves,” said Roger Chillingworth, with somewhat more emphasis than usual, and making a slight gesture with his forefinger. “They fear to take up the shame that rightfully belongs to them. Their love for man, their zeal for God's service,—these holy impulses may or may not coexist in their hearts with the evil inmates to which their guilt has unbarred the door, and which must needs propagate a hellish breed within them. But, if they seek to glorify God, let them not lift heavenward their unclean hands! If they would serve their fellow-men, let them do it by making manifest the power and reality of conscience, in constraining them to penitential self-abasement! Wouldst thou have me to believe, O wise and pious friend, that a false show can be better—can be more for God's glory, or man's welfare—than God's own truth? Trust me, such men deceive themselves!”
Dimmsdale commmited this sin, and has been living with the unrelenting guilt nonstop for the past three years. When Chillingsworth points out that the men who keep their sin a secret deceive themselves, he is urging Dimmsdale to come forth and confess what he has done. He continues to state the consequences that people endure when they hide things that are meant to be let out.
“Thou hast escaped me!” he repeated more than once. “Thou hast escaped me!”
Rodger Chillingsworth had complete control over Arthur Dimmsdale. He was taking the sin and guilt that Dimmsdale was being tortured with and made it so that it was even more painful for him. Chillingsworth wanted nothing more but for Dimmsdale to recieve the ultimate punishment... Dimmsdale ruined that authority and control that Chillingsworth had over him by revealing his secret. Or "escaping" him. Dimmsdale then blames Chillingsworth for sinning too..
“May God forgive thee!” said the minister. “Thou, too, hast deeply sinned!”
Then Dimmmsdale's attention shifted to Hester and Pearl, leaving Chillingsworth to soak in his very own guilt.
Pearl
ReplyDelete"Hist, hist!" said she, while her ill-omened physiognomy seemed to cast a shadow over the cheerful newness of the house. "Wilt thou go with us to-night? There will be a merry company in the forest; and I wellnigh promised the Black Man that comely Hester Prynne should make one."
"Make my excuse to him, so please you!" answered Hester, with a triumphant smile. "I must tarry at home, and keep watch over my little Pearl. Had they taken her from me, I would willingly have gone with thee into the forest, and signed my name in the Black Man's book too, and that with mine own blood!"
"We shall have thee there anon!" said the witch-lady, frowning, as she drew back her head.
But here--if we suppose this interview betwixt Mistress Hibbins and Hester Prynne to be authentic, and not a parable--wasalready an illustration of the young minister's argument against sundering the relation of a fallen mother to the offspring of her frailty. Even thus early had the child saved her from Satan's snare (103).
This quote follows magistrate Bellingham’s decision that Hester could keep Pearl.
Pearl acts as Hester’s saving grace in this encounter with evil. She is the only thing that keeps Hester from joining the devil worshipers.
This was one of those times that Pearl saves her mother from damnation. Hawthorne is showing that Pearl is the only thing on the earth that could keep her on a path of righteousness. Pearl changes from being a governer of Hester’s actions to a reward of sorts, because she has someone to love after all that had happened. Chillingworth is an opposite symbol to Pearl, for Dimmesdale, because he wants to lead him into the depths of hell. The scarlet letter is simular to Pearl in its attribute of showing Hester’s sin at every moment, not allowing her to become complacent with what she had done. Pearl relates to the symbols of sinfulness because she is the result of the sin of her parents, and of redemption, keeping Hester out of the path of evil. Hawthone is probably trying to say that good things can come from sinful origins.
"Hadst thou sought the whole world over," said Chillingworth to Dimmesdale,"there was no secret,-no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me,-save on this very scaffold!"
ReplyDelete"Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither!" answered the minister.
Chillingworth calls out to Dimmesdale that the only place that he could have escaped Chillingworth's torture was to tell the public of his sin and be punished for it.
This symbol is shown throughout the novel whenever a character is hiding the truth. The novels ends with all secrets revealed, where Dimmesdale is set free of his guilt and dies. The opposite of this symbol is Dimmesdale, who refuses to tell his sin for seven years. Hawthorne is trying to tell the reader that a sin confessed earlier will be more holy and less painful than a sin kept secret.
With a convulsive motion, he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast. It was revealed! But it were irreverent to describe that revelation. For an instant, the gaze of the horror-stricken multitude was concentrated on the ghastly miracle; while the minister stood, with a flush of triumph in his face, as one who, in the crisis of acutest pain, had won a victory. Then, down he sank upon the scaffold! Hester partly raised him, and supported his head against her bosom. Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him, with a blank, dull countenance, out of which the life seemed to have departed,
ReplyDelete"Thou hast escaped me!" he repeated more than once. "Thou hast escaped me!"
"May God forgive thee!" said the minister. "Thou, too, hast deeply sinned!"
He withdrew his dying eyes from the old man, and fixed them on the woman and the child.
"Hester," said the clergyman, "farewell!"
"Hush, Hester--hush!" said he, with tremulous solemnity. "The law we broke I--the sin here awfully revealed!--let these alone be in thy thoughts! I fear! I fear! It may be, that, when we forgot our God--when we violated our reverence each for the other's soul--it was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an everlasting and pure reunion. God knows; and He is merciful! He hath proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man, to keep the torture always at red-heat! By bringing me hither, to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people! Had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost for ever! Praised be His name! His will be done! Farewell!"
The two main symbols in this passage are Dimmesdale's dying words and what he tore off from his breast. This is the final scene with Dimmesdale when he slowy dies in front of the whole town. He has just admitted his sin and asks for God's forgiveness, not only for his crime, but also for the way he has handled the situation. He has been living a lie and he seems almost happy dying because he is dying peacfully.
Dimmesdale's dying words represent the emotion everyone feels when they keep a secret. This symbol is very important because this happens to most people in everyday life and it sometimes destroys their life, just like Dimmesdale. Secondly, Dimmesdale tore off his own "scarlet letter" to reveal who he truly is to the entire town. This is a major scene in this novel because it is the first time we see Dimmesdale without a burden on his chest, (literally), and it is the first time we see him just as Reverend Dimmesdale, no strings attached. This is almost like a breath of fresh air because Hawthorne is trying to show the reader that IT IS possible to be happy again after a sin like this, even if that happiness comes from dying a peaceful death. The way this book ends ultimately shows just how big a deal this sin was back then. As we can see, the consequence of adultery just might have an ironic twist to it: having a good life with God in Heaven you want to, even if it means dying to get that peaceful place in your life. A similar symbol in this novel was when Hester throws off her scarlet letter. She feels salvation because she feels that it will make her fell free and come closer to living a happier life with God. The theme of salvation is throughout this entire novel and it relates to many different symbols. But ultimately Hawthorne is trying to tell the reader that "grace and salvation" come along with consequences and sacrifices. To get to this happy part of your life, you have to work hard for it and not expect it to just go away.
"Hester Prynne," said he, leaning over the balcony, and looking down steadfastly into her eyes, "thou hearest what this good man says, and seest the accountability under which I labor. If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin? Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph over the evil within thee, and the sorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him--who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself--the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips!"
ReplyDeleteThis is the scene at the very beginning of the novel where Dimmesdale is calling out to Hester to reveal the husband so that she may have some chance at grace by confessing her sin and the co-sinner. This represents the fact that Dimmesdale himself put on a show for the people making them believe he wanted to know the co-sinner, even though it was he, yet he did not want Hester to actually reveal him. So while Hester was supposedly given the opportunity at grace, Dimmesdale did not want her to take it.
Hawthorne uses this to show yet even more corruption in today's society; the high leaders and people we idolize seem to make the giant mistakes they preach to us not to make: such hipocracy. Towards the end of the novel, when Dimmesdale finally confesses his sin of adultery, he is given that chance at salvation; without a confession, grace would not have been possible. The only counterpart symbol would be Hester's side of the whole scandal. The symbol of Grace/Salvation itselt can be directly related to the symbol of Guilt/Sin. Both of these correlate through ones mental aspect of life and then can both affect one's religious life. This theme is really the main theme of the novel; how can we get passed all of the corruption in order to obtain the grace and salvation that we all desire?
He turned towards the scaffold, and stretched forth his arms.
ReplyDelete“Hester,” said he, “come hither! Come, my little Pearl!”
“Hadst thou sought the whole earth over,” said he, looking darkly at the clergyman, “there was no one place so secret,—no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me,—save on this very scaffold!”
Dimmesdale has kept the secret of his sin until now. He has been torturing himself because of his guilt. Hester has been cast out by society for the same thing that he did. Chillingsworth, Hester’s husband, wants to seek revenge. He has been trying to get Dimmesdale to confess, and he is making Dimmesdale miserable. Hester and Dimmesdale had planned to leave after his election sermon. Once he is done with his sermon, he tells Hester and Pearl to come to him. He confesses his sin, and he was now free from Chillingsworth’s wrath.
The scaffold represents redemption and truth. Dimmesdale is able to confess his sin after lying for seven years. He has been torturing himself, so by confessing, he feels God’s grace again. The greater message that is seen in this passage is that hiding a huge secret ruins your life. It is better to repent and let your secret be known. Hawthorne is trying to communicate that the way to repent for a sin as big as adultery, especially when the adulterer is a preacher, the only way to get rid of the guilt is to come clean in front of the people you have lied to. Dimmesdale dies right after he repents on the scaffold, so he died without the terrible guilt that he had for seven years. The counterpart to the scaffold is the scaffold itself. Earlier in the book, the scaffold was a place of punishment and judgment. This was seen when Hester was persecuted on the scaffold.