Summary-
Chillingworth has become more persistent in his pursuit to find out what is ailing Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale has had more effective sermons and the parishioners think that he is really connected to God and want to be around him. Dimmesdale whips himself out of the guilt he is feeling from his sins and also begins to see ghosts of people that have died and also of Hester and Pearl.
1. Dimmesdale’s Sermons
Other members of the clergy had spent more time understanding and connecting with God and reading books because they were older. However, Dimmesdale knew how to talk and connect with the parishioners and for this reason they all respected him and wanted to be around him all the time. Dimmesdale understood and felt their pain and was able to communicate that in his sermons. Because of this, they “deemed the young clergyman a miracle of holiness” (Hawthorne 109). Everyone appreciated him and thought he was so close to God and was definitely going to heaven as the narrator describes, “The aged members of the flock [...] believed that he would go heavenward before them, and enjoined it upon their children, that their old bones should be buried close to their young pastor’s holy grave” (Hawthorne 109-110). Everyone, even those older than Dimmesdale, believed he was very holy and close to God and was for sure going to go to heaven. They thought that being buried near him would give them a better chance of going to heaven. Because of the sin Dimmesdale was keeping inside him, he was able to communicate some of his pain through his sermons and was able to relate to some other people, which is why he was so likable. However, no one knew the truth and Dimmesdale felt as though he was lying and cheating the parishioners. He knows he is probably not going to heaven and the narrator states, “And, all this time, perchance, when poor Mr. Dimmesdale was thinking of his grave, he questioned with himself whether the grass would ever grow on it, because an accursed thing must there be buried! (Hawthorne 110).
Dimmesdale knows he is wrong and the narrator reveals that Dimmesdale wants to tell the truth to people, but is too afraid. Instead, he says that he is an awful person, but the parishioners still respect him and think of themselves as even worse.
2.The Scourge
Because of the guilt and pain Dimmesdale was feeling, he scourges himself. To try and “purify” his body, he would do this as a way to deal with what he’s done and try and redeem himself. The narrator describes it and says, “It was his custom, too, as it has been that of many other pious Puritans, to fast, - not, however, like them, in order to purify the body and render it the fitter medium celestial imagination, but rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance” (Hawthorne 111). The reason he does this is to try and redeem himself for the sin he committed and try to do good in the eyes of God. He believes, as other Puritans do, as the quote says, that doing something to oneself would purify the body and possibly make things right with their sins and God. Dimmesdale takes it to the extreme and would scourge himself “until his knees trembled.”
This also demonstrates how Dimmesdale is a coward. First, he won’t admit to the townspeople and parishioners that he has sinned and shouldn’t be as praised as he is. Second, he whips himself in private because he does not want people to know and he doesn’t want to suffer public humiliation, like Hester has.
Wow Factor
NCIS episode “Dagger”
In the Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale does a similar thing as Agent Lee. Because he knows he did something wrong, he wants to punish himself for it, and so he whips himself. Agent Lee knows what she did was wrong and goes further than Dimmesdale and allows herself to be killed in order to compensate for the damage she caused.
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