“Staying silent is like a slow growing cancer to the soul and a trait of a true coward”- Shannon L. Adler, an author on Goodreads. Generally speaking, people know that if you bottle your emotions up inside for a long time, it will lead to more suffering and stress. Over the course of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, we read about an affair between a married woman, Hester Prynne, and a clergyman, Arthur Dimmesdale, which leaves Hester with a child, Pearl. The novel takes place in the seventeenth century, in a puritan town in Boston. After the affair, only Hester is punished. Dimmesdale does not confess to being the father. However, Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth is determined throughout the novel to discover who Pearl’s father is. It is important to…show more content… A final aspect of Dimmesdale’s cowardice, is the timing of his confession, it plays a huge factor in the novel. After Dimmesdale is elected the new town leader but announced too close to death, he walks out of the church followed by the rest of the town. Dimmesdale steps up onto the scaffold and calls out to the people, with Hester and Pearl at his side. Dimmesdale states, “People of New England!... behold me here, the one sinner of the world!” (pg.241). Timing is key to understanding Dimmesdale’s sudden confession. Dimmesdale remains silent for several years, so why would he confess his sin so effortlessly right before death? Dimmesdale confessed because he knew he was close to death and he didn’t want to go to God before he confessed his sin to the mortal world.
Overall, one can see that if Arthur Dimmesdale had the same courage in the beginning, as he had in the end of the novel, he wouldn’t have suffered as much.
Clearly, the
Generally speaking one can understand that it is better to share your secrets rather than live in guilt and torture yourself. Be strong, don’t put yourself down, doing so will only increase your
