Minister Dimmesdale

Arthur Dimmesdale
Minister Dimmesdale plays a very unique and very ironic role in this novel. Mr. Dimmesdale is a minister, a man of god. Moreover, he is not only a healer of sin, but pure gentleman representing god. His stereotypical role shows his purity, but it is very ironic that it is Minister Dimmesdale himself who is the sinner; himself the adulterer. In the opening chapters, he tries to mask himself from his sin, wearing the face of a pure man, trying to heal Hester from the sins she has committed. He even goes as far to ask Hester, while she stands on a scaffold before the whole town, who is her lover; who is her child’s father. When Hester refuses to comment, Dimmesdale I am sure breaths a sigh of relief, but he also makes the people of village believe not only in his innocence, but in his unsurpassed nobility, chivalry, and purity. These acts by Mr. Dimmesdale show a man hiding his endeavors, but later on in the novel, i...