Reading Response #3

This third response that I'm going to do is about a part on the book that is very brief but very interesting. At one point in the story Mr. Dimmesdale has a bit of a realization, and he goes to stand on the scaffold of which Hester had to when she was released from prison to punish himself for his sin. "Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his heart." (Hawthorne, 168) Mr. Dimmesdale finally faced the thing that was causing him pain every day, and this was something that had a huge affect on his daily life. Every day his heart would ache and people would notice that he would always put his hand to his heart, or breast area, just like Hester. Hester's pain was caused by the scarlet letter and her sin although Mr. Dimmesdale's pain was caused by his sin, it was reflected internally. There was a little confrontation between Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth where this is somewhat explained: "a sickness, a sore place, if we may so call it, in your spirit, hath immediately its appropriate manifestation in your bodily frame." so reverend Dimmesdale's pain is caused by his sin, this bad thing that is in his mind is causing him bodily harm every day, and this makes him so weak, people believed he was dyeing, and he actually believed he was dyeing as well. By going to the place where Hester showed her sin to the town he could feel the shame and possibly release some of this bad thing in his body by taking responsibility for what he had done. He ended up eventually coming to a sense of calm though, in the dead of night standing on that scaffold he thought at one point that the clergymen would find him and the people of the town would see what he had done but he stayed calm, he came to the thought that maybe it was good if people would see what he had done and he remained up on that scaffold. This was the turning point for the reverend, he finally accepted what he had done, and he was almost ready to pay the price for it, he wanted his pain to end and he wanted the townspeople to see that he would stand with Hester and little Pearl. The biggest part of this section of the book was the meteor: "And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendour, as if it were the light that is to reveal all the secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another." this meteor brought Hester, Arthur Dimmesdale and Pearl all together, something that both Hester and the reverend never thought would happen, and they all united under this meteor on that same scaffold. She was brought to shame in that exact same place, but really, while they stood hand-in-hand under the stars it was kind of nice for all of them even though they were in that spot of guilt. They were all finally together and they both shared the degradation, Hester had accepted what she had done and the reverend was finally beginning to accept it, at this point it was a new beginning for all of them. They all stood under the light, but something else extraordinary happened while they were all coming together: "looking upward to the zenith, beheld there the appearance of an immense letter,-the letter A-marked out in likes of dull red light." (Hawthorne, 175) the reverend saw this letter A in the sky as a sign from god, and once again his guilty conscience came "but with no such shape that his guilty imagination gave it; or, at least, with so little definiteness, that another's guilt might have seen another symbol in it." (Hawthorne, 175) other townspeople perceived it differently though, they saw it as the letter A standing for angel. You can look at Mr. Dimmesdale's situation like this as well, in one way, coming forth with what he had done would be looked at as an outrage and a huge sin which he would never live down, but you could also look at his coming forth as a blessing, because if he did he would be able to be with the women he loved, and enjoy the child that they conceived together.