Dimmesdale's Conscience

Andrew Kim
Period 1, AP English

The Conscience of Reverend Dimmesdale

Before the time of even the first psychologists, such as Sigmund Freud, or Karl Jung, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter. Today, it is well conceived that guilt drives such acts as sleepwalking, dreams, visions, and other paranormal events; however, Hawthorne was fairly ahead of his time. He explores the conscience thoroughly, as Shakespeare had done earlier in stories such as Macbeth. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses many literary elements, such as symbolism, syntax, and tone, to show the guilt of Reverend Dimmesdale and the guilt of his own mind.

To show Dimmesdale¡¯s inner guilt, Hawthorne utilizes symbolism. The scaffold in which Hester Prynne walks represents the public humiliation she endures every day, however, one in the same, it is also a sign of Dimmesdale¡¯s own anguish. The scaffold, being ¡°black and weather-stained with the storm or sunshine o...