Suffering In The Scarlet Letter

There are several different forms of suffering; internal, external, and pain brought by others. These forms of suffering happen all the time in the real world and the fictional world. One of the examples of suffering in the fictional world can be seen in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, The Scarlet Letter. Several people in the book are intimate with the definition of suffering, some suffering longer and more than others. In this book, the one person who had the most suffering placed on him was the well-known minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale has dealt with horrible internal guilt, has been mentally tortured by someone he thought of as a friend, and has physically harmed himself to try and repent for the sin, making him the character
Chillingworth came to Dimmesdale knowing full well that he was the father of Pearl. He had previously gone to Hester and threatened her into silence about who he really was. After Hester’s trial, Chillingworth wanted to talk to her to find out about who the man was, but Hester was stubborn. Chillingworth found out though and told her to, “‘Breathe not the secret, above all, to the man thou wottest of. Shouldst thou fail me in this, beware! His fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands’” (Hawthorne 70). He said this to Hester to keep her from telling Dimmesdale who he was, and this made it easier for Chillingworth to appear as a friend to Dimmesdale. In a way, this was partially Hester’s fault because, “By keeping this [secret] she tacitly helps him torment Dimmesdale” (Person 469). From the article Hester’s Revenge, the author Leland Person showed how Chillingworth was able to get close to Dimmesdale. This made it easier to see what made Dimmesdale tick, what made him lose it slightly. Chillingworth did all he could to slowly push Dimmesdale off of the edge, all while looking like a good friend. Dimmesdale did not see that his feelings of guilt were being turned against him by his “friend,” and thus did not turn him away, but instead welcomed him to try and comfort him. This of course brought the opposite
Davidson brings this idea up for Dimmesdale when he is still trying to deal with the weight of the sin. The thought is put there by Chillingworth, but Dimmesdale takes the idea and flies with it. He gets the idea that “If… the flesh partakes only of the fleshly corruption and the soul abides in its own realm of being, then a man may say to himself that he is degraded in only one part” (Davidson 360). This shows how Dimmesdale thought that if he only committed a bodily sin, then his soul is still in good shape and he will not need to be punished by God. He is unsure though, and uses self-flagellation and starvation to test this theory. He thinks that if his body is harmed and his soul still feels clean and holy, then he was right and he can go on his merry way. He ends up doing this for several years, not ever giving himself a break, and suffers from the pain