What Is Dimmesdale's Purpose In The Scarlet Letter

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Dimmesdale: Vase Throughout the Scarlet Letter, the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, displays Dimmesdale’s inner feelings and thoughts. Dimmesdale seems like he is put together on the outside, but on the inside, he is struggling with his secret. He is the representative of the Puritan society because they all deal with sin, but they do not want to admit their flaws. Unlike the Puritans, Dimmesdale eventually confesses his sin to the people. Through Dimmesdale's weakness of character, it reveals the fragility of the Puritan society.
In the novel, the citizens display how a Puritan society functions. The people all look up to the leaders of their society, and they try to act more like them. If the leader is crumbling then the society will start to …show more content…
Once the people see Dimmesdale has sinned, the Puritans might potentially shatter, like a vase, because they never suspected Dimmesdale, the revered, would sin. The people would go to him, so he can help guide them to live a good, sin free, life. When a crack is formed in the foundation of a vase, it spreads causing the whole piece to brake. The crack that formed was Dimmesdale hiding a secret from the Puritans. “Happy are you Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret” (Hawthorne 173). This resembles a vase because the appearance covers the contents of the vase. On the outside, he looks happy and young, but on the inside, he is empty and only made up with guilt. Like Dimmesdale, a vase may seem pretty on the outside, but on the inside, it is dark and dirty. The Puritan’s saw Dimmesdale’s outer appearance as a “young clergyman” who had a “very striking aspect,

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